Freud, Darwin, Dreams, and Cognitive Science

Freud in his The Interpretation of Dreams claims that the content of a dream contains components from the previous day’s events.

No doubt, too, my reader will recall the three characteristics of memory in dreams, which have so often been remarked on but which have never been explained:

(1) Dreams show a clear preference for the impressions of the immediately preceding days.

(2) They make their selections upon different principles from our waking memory, since they do not recall what is essential and important but what is subsidiary and unnoticed.

(3) They have at their disposal the earliest impressions of our childhood and even bring up details from that period of our life which, once again, strike us as trivial and which in our waking state we believe to have been long since forgotten.

. . .

This seems to be the appropriate moment for tabulating the different conditions to which we find that sources of dreams are subject. The source of a dream may be either--

(a) a recent and psychically significant experience which is represented in the dream directly, or

(b) several recent and significant experiences which are combined into a single unity by the dream, or

(c) one or more recent and significant experiences which are represented in the content of the dream by a mention of a contemporary but indifferent experience, or

(d) an internal significant experience (e.g. a memory or a train of thought), which is in that case invariably represented in the dream by the mention of a recent but indifferent impression.

Chapter V, The Material and Sources of Dreams, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud

As it turns out, he was correct, but, maybe, for different reasons than he supposed. Consider the following:

With the evolution of REM sleep, each species could process the information most important for its survival, such as the location of food or the means of predation or escape—those activities during which theta rhythm is present. In REM sleep this information may be accessed again and integrated with past experience to provide an ongoing strategy for behavior. Although theta rhythm has not yet been demonstrated in primates, including humans, the brain signal provides a clue to the origin of dreaming in humans. Dreams may reflect a memory-processing mechanism inherited from lower species, in which information important for survival is reprocessed during REM sleep. This information may constitute the core of the unconscious.

The Meaning of Dreams, Scientific American, August 2002, Jonathan Winson.

And this:

Consistent with evolution and evidence derived from neuroscience and reports of dreams, I suggest that dreams reflect an individual’s strategy for survival. The subjects of dreams are broad-ranging and complex, incorporating self-image, fears, insecurities, strengths, grandiose ideas, sexual orientation, desire, jealousy and love.

Dreams clearly have a deep psychological core. This observation has been reported by psychoanalysis since Freud and is strikingly illustrated by the work of Rosalind Cartwright of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago.

. . . In the ordinary course of events, depending on the individual’s personality, the themes of dreams may be freewheeling. Moreover, when joined with the intricate associations that are an intrinsic part of REM sleep processing, the dream’s statement may be rather obscure.

. . . These associations are strongly biased toward early childhood experience.

The Meaning of Dreams, Scientific American, August 2002, Jonathan Winson.

And this:

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.

The Meaning of Dreams, Scientific American, August 2002, Jonathan Winson.

Thus, we see the intricate interplay between Freud, Darwin, and the research of the modern cognitive sciences. Freud and Darwin continue to be expanded into sound, complex, integrated, and rigorous scientific theories.

My appreciation of Freud and Darwin continues to grow. They are models on how to avoid scientism and obscurantism. People say they do not tell the whole story. So what? If anyone knows the whole story, I’m listening.

Sweet dreams.