A historical loop of one hundred years: Similarities between 19th century and contemporary dream research.
Dreaming March 1, 2000 DOI: 10.1023/a:1009455807975 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Dream Late 19th century Epistemology Psychoanalysis Aesthetics |
| Citations | 35 |
| Key points | Argues that contemporary and 19th-century dream research share three core axioms about cognitive synthesis, associative mechanisms, and functional dissociation, positioning dreaming as a model for studying autonomous cognitive processes. |
Abstract
Contemporary cognitive and neuropsychological approaches to dreaming show striking methodological and conceptual similarities with the scientific dream literature of the last century. The use of introspective dream reports and the emphasis on dream phenomenology are characteristic of both periods but were bannished during the first half of this century, the former by behaviorism, the latter by psychoanalysis. Three main common axioms of 19th century and contemporary dream research are described: (a) dream experience results from cognitive syntheses realized in the absence of external constraints; (b) dream narrative or dream coherency involves mental associative mechanisms; (c) dream bizarreness emerges from a cerebral state characterized by functional dissociation. According to these three axioms, the observation of dream phenomena reveals that distinct cognitive processes might function in a partly autonomous, automatic, and dissociated way, making dreaming a unique model of these cognitive processes.