Only in Dreams, Beautiful Dreams

Scientific American is one of the most interesting and well written magazines of all time. The August 2002 issue titled "The Hidden Brain" is a great example. The issue is devoted to articles by top researchers in the neurosciences. Let me give an example of the kind of research that might be of value for philosophy. This is from the article "The Meaning of Dreams" by Jonathan Winson.

For reasons he could not possibly have known, Freud set forth a profound truth in his work. There is an unconscious, and dreams are indeed the "royal road" to understanding it. The characteristics of the unconscious and associated processes of brain functioning, however, are very different from what Freud thought. Rather than being a cauldron of untamed passions and destructive wishes, I propose that the unconscious is a cohesive, continuously active mental structure that takes note of life's experiences and reacts according to its own scheme of interpretation. Dreams are not disguised as a consequence of repression. Their unusual character is a result of the complex associations that are culled from memory.

I wonder how this plays out for certain kinds of philosophical arguments. The article has not deterred me from finishing my rereading of Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams." Freud was a great writer and thinker.