Converging Paradigms: A Reflection on Parallel Theoretical Developments in Psychoanalytic Metapsychology and Empirical Dream Research.

Empirical dream research and psychoanalytic metapsychology have undergone parallel shifts in how they conceptualize dreaming, with dreaming increasingly seen as a central metaphor for mental functioning. In metapsychology, the theories of Klein, Bion, and Matte-Blanco mark this paradigm shift, while in empirical research, competing theories by Hobson and Solms debated whether dream-work is meaningful for mental functioning. Empirical data now suggest that dream consciousness is significant for developing and maintaining adaptive waking consciousness. The author synthesizes these developments, draws conclusions for psychoanalytic theory and technique, and proposes an empirical research plan to test psychoanalysis's specificity in dream formation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In the last decades one can perceive a striking parallelism between the shifting perspective of leading representatives of empirical dream research concerning their conceptualization of dreaming and the paradigm shift within clinically based psychoanalytic metapsychology with respect to its theory on the significance of dreaming. In metapsychology, dreaming becomes more and more a central metaphor of mental functioning in general. The theories of Klein, Bion, and Matte-Blanco can be considered as milestones of this paradigm shift. In empirical dream research, the competing theories of Hobson and of Solms respectively argued for and against the meaningfulness of the dream-work in the functioning of the mind. In the meantime, empirical data coming from various sources seemed to prove the significance of dream consciousness for the development and maintenance of adaptive waking consciousness. Metapsychological speculations and hypotheses based on empirical research data seem to point in the same direction, promising for contemporary psychoanalytic practice a more secure theoretical base. In this paper the author brings together these diverse theoretical developments and presents conclusions regarding psychoanalytic theory and technique, as well as proposing an outline of an empirical research plan for testing the specificity of psychoanalysis in developing dream formation.