Dream Consciousness: Allan Hobson’s New Approach to the Brain and Its Mind (Vienna Circle Institute Library Book 3)

Annotation This book presents three lectures by Allan Hobson, entitled The William James Lectures on Dream Consciousness . The three lectures expose the new psychology, the new physiology and the new philosophy that derive from and support the protoconsciousness hypothesis of dreaming. They review in detail many of the studies on sleep and dreaming conducted since the days of Sigmund Freud. Following the lectures are commentaries written by scholars whose expertise covers a wide range of scientific disciplines including, but not limited to, philosophy, psychology, neurology, neuropsychology, cognitive science, biology and animal sciences. The commentaries each answer a specific question in relation to Hobson s lectures and his premise that dreaming is an altered state of consciousness. Capitalizing on a vast amount of data, the lectures and commentaries provide undisputed evidence that sleep consists of a well-organized sequence of subtly orchestrated brain states that undoubtedly play a crucial function in the maintenance of normal brain functions. These functions include both basic homeostatic processes necessary to keep the organism alive as well as the highest cognitive functions including perception, decision making, learning and consciousness." Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Introduction....Pages 3-7 Lecture I: Psychology....Pages 9-28 Lecture II: Physiology....Pages 29-49 Lecture III: Philosophy....Pages 51-79 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Do You Still Hold to an Activation Only Theory of the REM Sleep-Dreaming Correlation?....Pages 83-86 What Is the Most Promising Avenue to New Understanding of the Sleep-Learning Process?....Pages 87-89 Are You Convinced That Dreaming Is A Conscious State?....Pages 91-93 Your PET Studies Demonstrate Major Differences Between REM Sleep and Waking. How Do You Conceive of These Differences in Relation to Theories of Waking and Dreaming Consciousness?....Pages 95-100 How Does Your Formulation of Lesion-Induced States of Diminished Consciousness Fit with AIM? Do You Suppose That Brain Stem Damage Affects Activation (A) and Modulation (M)?....Pages 101-109 Does Your “Feeling of What Happens” Definition of Consciousness Extend to Dreaming? If So, How Do You Conceptualize Internally Generated FWHs?....Pages 111-112 What Is Dreaming for, If Anything?....Pages 113-117 Your Interest in Sleep and Memory Posits a Semantic Learning Function to NREM Sleep. What Are Your Views of Associative Memory Enhancement by REM?....Pages 119-122 Your Imaging Group Has Coined the Term ‘Dream Imaging.’ Please Summarize the Concept in Relation to Dream Theory....Pages 123-129 Do You Think That Scientific Psychology Has a Place for the Study of Dreaming? In Other Words, Do You Accept Introspection as Scientifically Useful?....Pages 131-132 What Does Your Theory of Hallucinosis Make of Dream Experience? Do Both Reveal the Operation of Internal Image Generator Mechanisms in the Brain?....Pages 133-136 Please Comment on the Predictive Tenet of the Protoconsciousness Hypothesis. Is This Idea Consistent with the Helmholtzian Model of Free Energy That You Are Developing?....Pages 137-142 How Does the Protoconsciousness Concept of Dreaming Fit with Your Model of the Animal Mind? Do Dogs, Parrots, and Monkeys “Think” Without Words?....Pages 143-148 How Does the New Protoconsciousness Hypothesis Fit with Your Own Concept of the Cognitive Unconscious?....Pages 149-151 Does Morrisson’s PGO Wave/Startle Hypothesis Help Us Explain Such Robust Dream Features as Surprise and Scene Shift?....Pages 153-155 Emotion Appears To Be Generated in REM Sleep in the Absence of Sensory Input. How Does This Finding Fit with Your Stimulus-Response Model of Emotion?....Pages 157-158 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Do You Still Maintain That the Only Significant Difference Between Waking and REM Sleep-Dreaming Is Due to the Subtraction of Sensory Input in REM? What Is Your View of the Aminergic Demodulation Hypothesis That Derives from AIM?....Pages 159-159 What Is the Specific Significance of Dream Research for Philosophy of Mind?....Pages 161-166 How Does the Dream Consciousness/Protoconsciousness Concept Resonate with Linguistic Ideas and the Hypothesis of a Universal Grammar?....Pages 167-170 You Have Interpreted the PGO Waves of REM Sleep as Activation of the Startle Network of the Brain. What Is Your Theory of the Function of Off-Line Startle and What Impact, If Any, Does This Activation Have Upon Dreaming?....Pages 171-173 What Is the Current Status of Your “Covert REM Process” Theory, Especially in the Light of the New Protoconsciousness Hypothesis?....Pages 175-180 How Does the Theory and Data Discussed in the Lectures Fit with Your Work on Dreams?....Pages 181-183 How Does Protoconsciousness Theory Mesh with Your Model of Dream Emotion?....Pages 185-186 Do You Suppose That, in Addition to the Sensorimotor Isolation of REM, There Is Impairment of Intrinsic Attentional Processes That We Experience as an Inability to Observe and Think in Our Dreams?....Pages 187-188 Does Your “Single-Minded” Characterization of Dreaming Now Find Confirmation and Explanation in the Lucid Dreaming Data?....Pages 189-189 The Idea, Championed by Your Group, That Dreaming Functions as Threat Avoidance Would Seem to Be Quite Compatible with Protoconsciousness Theory. But Is It Really Dreaming (as Against REM) That Performs That Function? In Other Words, Are You a Dualist or a Neutral Monist?....Pages 191-194 What Are the Clinical Implications of Protoconsciousness Theory for the Conceptualization of Those Psychiatric Disorders Commonly Referred to as Mental Illnesses?....Pages 195-196 You Emphasize the Continuity Between Waking and Dreaming. But What About Continuity in the Other Direction, i.e. Between Dreaming and Waking? And What About Discontinuity? Do You Deny Its Existence?....Pages 197-200 How Does the Finding of a Correlation Between the Three Conscious States (REM Dream, Lucid Dream, and Waking) and 40 Hz Power Fit with Your Suggestion That 40 Hz Is a Substrate of Consciousness?....Pages 201-203 Do You Agree That Freud’s Dream Theory Was Erroneous with Respect to (1) The Genesis of Dreaming (Release of Repressed Infantile Wishes) and (2) The Bizarreness of Dreams (Disguise and Censorship of Unacceptable Wishes)?....Pages 205-209 The Term “Hypnosis” Suggests a Sleep-Like State and Recent Evidence Regarding Lucid Dreaming Bears on the Notion of a “Hidden Observer.” What Is Your View of the Analogy of Dreaming and Hypnosis?....Pages 211-214 How Does Your PHI Formula Deal with the Evidence that Consciousness Is State Dependent? More Specifically, if PHI Were Higher in REM Sleep Than in Waking, Would You Conclude That Dreaming Was More Conscious Even Than Waking?....Pages 215-217 From Your Point of View as a Clinical and Health Psychologist, What Is Your Reaction to the Hypothesis of a Virtual Reality Program for the Brain?....Pages 219-220 Please Summarize Your Findings on the Dream Representation of Disability in Your Studies of Handicapped People. What Bearing Do These Data Have on Protoconsciousness Theory?....Pages 221-222 You Have Made Blind Sight a Valid Phenomenon. What Is Your Position About Dream Vision? Is That Not Evidence for Internal Visual Image Generation by the Brain? Do You Suppose That Such Image Production Could Occur in Blind Subjects?....Pages 223-223 How Can the Protoconsciousness Hypothesis Contribute to Philosophical Theories of Consciousness and the Self?....Pages 225-230 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 How Does the Formal Approach to Mind Taken by Protoconsciousness Science Compare with the Formal Approach to Works of Art That You Espouse?....Pages 231-233 Front Matter....Pages 235-235 Lecture I: Psychology....Pages 237-244 Lecture II: Physiology....Pages 245-249 Lecture III: Philosophy....Pages 251-256 4.14 Psychotherapeutic Efficacy4.15 Confabulation as One Ally of Consciousness; 4.16 Machine Analogies and the Brain-Mind; 4.17 Activation-Synthesis, AIM, and Clinical Psychiatry; 4.18 Curing Dream Psychosis; 4.19 Functional vs. Organic States: A False Dilemma; 4.20 Dream Consciousness and Its Causation; 4.21 Phenomenological and Intellectual Awakening; References; Part II: Commentaries; Chapter 5: Do You Still Hold to an Activation Only Theory of the REM Sleep-Dreaming Correlation?; References; Chapter 6: What Is the Most Promising Avenue to New Understanding of the Sleep-Learning Process? 3.4 Summary of Physiological Underpinnings of Dream Consciousness3.5 The AIM Model; 3.6 Human Neuropsychology; References; Chapter 4: Lecture III: Philosophy; 4.1 Dual-Aspect Monism; 4.2 Mental Illness Is a Misnomer; 4.3 The Emergence of Consciousness; 4.4 Binding and Consciousness; 4.5 Is Ego Localizable?; 4.6 Automaticity and Spontaneity; 4.7 The Hard Problem; 4.8 The Seamless Connection Between Brain and Mind; 4.9 Consciousness as Intrinsic Creativity; 4.10 Philosophy of Psychology; 4.11 This Mimic Wakes; 4.12 Emotion and Consciousness; 4.13 Dream Plot Selection: Another Look 9.1 The AIM Model, Coma, and Related States9.2 Disorders of Consciousness (DOC) and the AIM Model; 9.2.1 Disorders of Consciousness; 9.3 Disorders of Consciousness in the AIM Space; 9.3.1 Activation and Measuring the Level of Consciousness in DOC; 9.3.2 Input/Output Gateway in Disorders of Consciousness; 9.3.3 Modulation; References; Chapter 10: Does Your ``Feeling of What Happens Definition of Consciousness Extend to Dreaming? If So, How Do You Conceptualize Internally Generated FWHs?; Chapter 11: What Is Dreaming for, If Anything?; References