THE ORIGIN OF DREAMS: A PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL APPROACH Joseph Griffin B.Sc. The London School of Economics and Political Science 1996 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in the faculty of Science, University of London. - 1 - UMI Number: U615417 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615417 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 I i-hES ES F 71+os Corrections p line 33 17 unsuitable 38 4 keeper’ 39 last 1 ine If 42 20 insert ’told’ 43 5 there (not their) 49 3 from bottom delete ’releasing’ G3 G comma after discharge 123 13 spat ial 125 13 imagined 12 G 19 spat ial 13G last 1 ine Freud U3 13 Leopold 1G2 11 insert *u’ in stimulus 1G 7 7 th of quote I 17G 11 Hall 187 Strachey ABSTRACT This thesis puts forward three hypotheses concerning the origin, meaning and function of dreaming. Hypothesis no. 1. Dreams are the sensory analogue of emotionally arousing introspections from waking (activated drive - schemata) not manifested or acted out during waking. Hypothesis no. 2. Dreams de-activate the drive-schemata still active at sleep onset. It is suggested that this releases the resources of the cortex and limbic system to deal with the emotionally arousing contingencies of the next waking period. Hypothesis no. 3. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that the REM state, which is closely associated with dreaming, evolved to programme instinctive behaviour in the foetus and neonate. It is argued that such programming of genetically anticipated knowledge must necessarily be in the form of incomplete schemata for which analogous sensory components must be identified. It follows that a prime directive of information processing in the REM state is to search for sensory analogues for incomplete schemata. Unlike the genetically anticipated knowledge - 2 - the waking introspections do include identified sensory components. It is ,therefore, hypothesized that the activated drive-schemata released during REM sleep will be processed as a sensory analogue. Evidence in support of these hypotheses is derived from four sources (1) The biological studies of dreaming carried out in recent decades. (2) The author's own dreams and their corresponding waking introspections. (3) Other people's dreams including the analysis of a famous dream of Freud's and also of Jung which demonstrates their metaphorical identity with their known waking concerns. (4) The work of Silberer (1909, 1951) on the 'autosymbolic effect' is analysed to demonstrate the existence of an analogue process that converts introspections from waking into sensory analogues. - 3 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the helpful advice of my supervisor, Professor H. Farr particularly with regard to layout, structure and presentation of material in this thesis. Dr. A, Mayes of Manchester University was kind enough to supply me with detailed analysis, criticism and encouragement of my ideas at various stages in their evolution. I am also grateful to Professor H. Eysenk of the Institute of Psychiatry, and Dr. M. Blagrove of University College of Swansea for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this thesis. - 4 - CONTENTS 1. Introduction 6 2. Theoretical and Experimental Background 12 3. The Biology of Dreaming 51 4. The Psychology of Dreaming (1) 82 5. The Psychology of Dreaming (2) 106 6. Freud's Specimen Dream and Jung's House Dream 134 7. Dreams, Creativity and Psychotherapy 156 8. Conclusion and Summary 176 9. References 186 - 5 - (1) INTRODUCTION The recognition that a comprehensive understanding of human natur?. requires a holistic approach i.e. a recognition of the interdependence of the biological and the psychological has increasingly developed in recent years.. This is commonly referred to as the 'mind-body' approach. In this thesis I hope to show that our understanding of human dreaming can be advanced by such an integrated approach. Traditionally, theories that seek to explain why we dream tend to divideinto two broad categories of explanation namely psychological and biological. Psychological theories tend to be either of a psychodynamic type such as Jung's and Freud's or of an information processing type such as Calvin Hall's cognitive theory or Evan's computer theory. The discovery in (1953) by Aserinksy & Kleitman of the special state of physiological arousal known as 'rapid eye movement' or 'REM' sleep which appears to have a close relationship with dreaming gave a great boost to the biological approach to the understanding of the function of dreaming. Biological theories stimulated by this finding include the Crick and Mitchison (1983) 'elimination of - 6 - parasitic connections in the neural net hypothesis' to the 'activation - synthesis' hypothesis of Hobson and McCarley (1977). These biological theories are reviewed in chapter (3) and the psychological theories referred to are reviewed in chapter (2). The need for an integration of the biological and the psychological approaches to account for the full complexity of human dreaming was apparent to Hudson (1985) when he wrote: " This evolutionary puzzle (dreaming and REM sleep) and the question of the brain's operating principles are tied together, as Crick and Mitchison correctly assume. What they do not entertain is the possibility of an altogether more sweeping synthetic and at the same time more rigorous explanation, in which these biological considerations are gathered together with another more strictly psychological one; the question of the formal properties implicit in the meaning of dreams themselves. In such a synthesis 'bottom up' and 'top down' theorising about the sleeping brain and its products would knit together, and the conceptual gap within psychology between mechanistic and interpretative modes of explanation would close............. Such a synthesis is as exciting a prospect as any psychology now offers, and eminently achievable - although at present it hovers in mid-distance, still out of reach " - 7 - The psycho- biological approach put forward in this thesis seeks to develop hypotheses that can explain the function meaning and origin of dreams by integrating data from both the biological and psychological fields. The biological research to be reviewed in chapter two clearly shows that there is a close relationship between dreams and REM sleep. Dreaming occurs primarily during REM sleep. The REM state occupies the greater proportion of sleep time in the foetus during the last trimester (80%) and in the neonate (67%) and further declines to about 25% in later childhood. The REM state also occurs in mammals. A theory of dreaming that could integrate the ontogenetic and phylogenetic data about the REM state and dreaming would be very attractive. Such a theory is the 'activation - synthesis theory' developed by Hobson and McCarley, which we referred to earlier. However this theory sees dreaming as essentially a meaningless phenomenon resulting from a synthesis of endogenous random brain stimulation. Such a theory cannot ,therefore, provide the kind of integration of the psychological and biological data that Hudson is looking for and, as we have seen, believes possible. If we could develop a theory of dreaming that would have the advantages of combining the ontogenetic, phylogenetic and psychological perspectives without invalidating the richness of the psychological data, than we might have a very powerful theory indeed. Such a theory would need to - 8 - be rigorously formulated and be potentially capable of being falsified or else its explanatory value would be purchased at the expense of its scientific accuracy. The psycho-biological approach developed in this thesis puts forward three specific and interrelated hypotheses that seek to explain the origin, meaning and function of dreams and their relationship to the REM state. The first hypothesis deals with the origin and meaning of dreams. This hypothesis was suggested by the results of an experiment on dreams reported in chapter one. This hypothesis states that dreams are the sensory analogue of emotionally arousing introspections left unmanifested at sleep onset. The second hypothesis as to the function of dreams follows from the first hypothesis. This hypothesis states that by giving sensory expression to these activated drive schemata (emotionally arousing introspections) they become de-activated. This frees the resources of the cortex and limbic system to deal with the emotionally arousing contingencies of the next waking period. The third hypothesis seeks to explain why dreams are expressed in the form of sensory analogues. To answer this question we need to turn to the biology of dreaming and the REM state itself. Research is considered (chapter 3) which indicates that genetic information may be - 9 - programmed during the REM state in the foetus and in the neonate. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that the REM state which is closely associated with dreaming evolved to programme instinctive behaviour in the foetus and neonate. It is suggested that such programming of genetically anticipated knowledge must necessarily be in the form of incomplete schemata for which analogous sensory components must be identified. It follows that a prime directive of information processing in the REM state is to search for sensory analogues for these incomplete schemata. Unlike the genetically anticipated knowledge the waking introspections do include identified sensory components. We could therefore expect that if schemata from waking are released during REM sleep that they too would be processed in the form of sensory analogues.