In this book, Mark Solms chronicles a fascinating effort to systematically apply the clinico-anatomical method to the study of dreams. The purpose of the effort was to place disorders of dreaming on an equivalent footing with those of other higher mental functions such as the aphasias, apraxias, and agnosias. Modern knowledge of the neurological organization of human mental functions was grounded upon systematic clinico-anatomical investigations of these functions under neuropathological conditions. It therefore seemed reasonable to assume that equivalent research into dreaming would provide analogous insights into the cerebral organization of this important but neglected function. Accordingly, the main thrust of the study was to identify changes in dreaming that are systematically associated with focal cerebral pathology and to describe the clinical and anatomical characteristics of those changes. The goal, in short, was to establish a nosology of dream disorders with neuropathological significance. Unless dreaming turned out to be organized in a fundamentally different way than other mental functions, there was every reason to expect that this research would cast light on the cerebral organization of the normal dream process.
Biography
Mark Solms
"...Solms presents original insights based on new research...with remarkable thoroughness and candor...it makes an important contribution to the understanding of an aspect of human perception and cognition....an excellent resource offering a new understanding of the production of dreaming...that will be cited for years to come for the data it presents, for its theoretical speculations, and as a basis for further research."
—American Scientist"...a fascinating and well-researched monograph by a clinician and scientist who has accumulated a remarkable body of data from 361 patients over a four-year period....a most impressive work, chock full of most instructive and engaging case studies, clinical neuropsychology and sophisticated theorizing."
—Trends in Cognitive Sciences"...the book provides an excellent starting point for further research in this under-investigated and fascinating area of neuropsychology."
—Brain
