The Interpretation of Dreams and of Jokes provides a unique and integrative introduction to dream science. It addresses a notable gap in cognitive psychology on the subject of dreams and explores significant overlaps between the phenomena of dreams and jokes. Bringing together extensive research from cognitive psychology, neuroscience and psychoanalysis, the book provides a balanced approach to dream science that is underpinned by experimental and theoretical research. It considers the significance of dreams and their relationships to jokes, examining how both require an understanding of latent content in which context and individual differences play a large part. The book outlines a history of dream research and dream science and includes several original dream extracts for discussion. The book’s chapters explore how we can interpret meaning in dreams, how dreams might be indicators of inner psychological and somatic states, whether dreams can be used in problem-solving and the relationship between dreams and aphasia, memory and waking consciousness. This groundbreaking book will be essential reading for researchers and students from psychological and psychoanalytic backgrounds who are interested in the analysis and science of dreams.
BRIEF INTRODUCTIONI. HISTORICAL FORESHADOWINGS4,000 Years Ago: The Dream of Dumuzi and the Interpretation of GeshitinannaCro-Magnon Cave Painting of a Dream: Jouvet’s InterpretationSemantic Depth: Manifest vs. Latent ContentRepression of DreamsDreams in Religion, Philosophy, Medicine, and WarBias in InterpretationBehaviorism and the Eclipse of Dreams in Modern PsychologyConditioning and Instinctive DriftDreams and DarwinHelmholtz’s "Unconscious Inferences": Cognitive Psychology’s Neglect of DreamsMemory and DreamsII. FREUD’S INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS AND HIS TREATEMENT OF JOKES: BREAKTHROUGHS, ERRORS, REVISIONSFreud’s Transition from Neuroscience to PsychologyDreams as Just One Dialect from a Family of Release PhenomenaAphasia and DreamsDreams as the Royal Road to the Knowledge of the UnconsciousThe Manifest-Latent Content Distinction and the Dream-Work The "Dream-Work" as Sub-Work Formalization of the Manifest-Latent Content Distinction: m ≠ m × context Outright Errors in Freud’s Dream TheoryJokes III. SAMPLES OF DREAMS AND OTHER RELEASE PHENOMENA, WITH INTERPRETATIONS AND COMMENTARIESFreud’s Standard Approach to Interpreting Dreams and other Release Phenomena Freud’s Interpretation of a Freudian Slip: The Fugitive AliquisThe Irma Dream and its Analysis (Sigmund Freud)The Picture Dream of Dolores P. (Matthew Erdelyi)The Elephant Dream of Alice V. (John Nemiah)Allan Hobson’s "Mozart at the Museum" Dream Zelda’s Dream: "Worst Case Scenario" Freud Dreams Chinese Poetry: 弗 梦 汉 诗 (Diane M. Zizak) Problem-Solving Dreams (Deirdre Barrett) Dream-Like Cognition in Schizophrenia Theoretical Cautions on the Overlap between Dreams and SchizophreniaCHAPTER IV. NEUROSCIENCE FOUNDATIONS OF DREAMINGREM Sleep: REM’s, Short-Wave EEG’s, Motor Inhibition, Genital Arousal--and DreamsThe Unravelling of the REM = Dreaming ConsensusDouble-Dissociation between the REM State and Dreaming (Mark Solms)Hobson’s Revision of the Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis: The "AIM" ModelThe "Hot Zone" of Dreaming (Giulio Tononi, Francesca Siclari, et al.)Form vs. Content: Hobson’s "Formalistic" Theory and the Question of Dream MeaningDreams as Paradoxical States of Simultaneous Activation and Deactivation Complications with the "Frontality" Notion Complications with the "Limbic System" (Does it Even Exist?--Joseph LeDoux)The Neural Default Network: Mind-Wandering, Fantasy, Daydreams, Dreams Release Phenomena: Meaning and Implications V. QUANTITATIVE CONTENT-ANALYSISQuantitative vs. Qualitative AnalysisRecovery of Subliminal Stimuli in Dreams, Daydreams, and FantasySignal Detection Theory (SDT) and Fantasy: ROC Curves, d′, and βQuantitative Content-Analysis in Literary CriticismQuantitative Content-Analysis of Dreams (Hall, Van De Castle, Domhoff, Problems with Modern Quantitative-Analytic Approaches to DreamsThe Continuity Hypothesis (Freud, Jung, Calkins, Hall, Domhoff, Schredl, Bulkeley, Erdelyi, Jenkins)Application of Signal Detection Theory to Dream Recall (Erdelyi et al.) VI. DREAMING AS NOISY REMEMBERINGIncorporation of Awake Experiences in Dreams over Time (Freud, Jouvet, Nielsen, Blagrove, Brugger)Hypermnesic DreamsDreams as Leading, Lagging, and Concurrent Indicators The Associative Structure of Memory and Resulting "Spheres of Meaning"Freudian Distortions are the Same as Bartlettian Distortions but for Motive: Repeated Long-Distance Recalls of the "War of the Ghosts": Interpretations and Quantitative Content-AnalysesVII. OVERVIEW AND CONCLUSIONSDreams Have Meaning, and at More than one LevelContext is the Key to Latent Contents Formalization of the Manifest-Latent Content Distinction: m ≠ m × context Dynamics: Weighting of Items in the Contextual Ecology Interpretation is ProbabilisticSymbolismDistortions—Bartlettian and Freudian: Implications for the Dream-Work NotionDreams are Hypermnesic (Sometimes) Dreams as Leading, Lagging, and Concurrent Indicators The Continuity between Dream-Life and Awake-Life Dreams are One Dialect from a Family of Release-PhenomenaAssociative Structure Undergirds Meaning—as well as Errors and BiasesThe Essential Fact about Dreams: They are Confusing but Honest APPENDIXApplication of Signal Detection Theory to Narrative Recall, Including Dreams: Classic Signal-Detection Theory, ROC Functions, d', P(A), and H│FcApplication of Classic SDT Notions to Recall: From ROC to roc Functions and Conditionalized Hits (H|Fc) Achieving the Target False-Alarm Level, Fc: Paring-Down Narrative Recall TextsImplementing the CCFR Procedure: Illustration of the Computation of H|Fc Empirical Validation of the CCFRAlternatives to the H|Fc Index of Criterion-Controlled Free RecallREFERENCES
