Science and the 'emancipation of the mind': dreams, the mind, and slavery.
Laura Elizabeth Smith, E Allen Driggers
Journal of Sleep Research April 2024 DOI: 10.1111/jsr.13995 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | History of abolition History of dreams History of medicine History of slavery History of sleep Intellectual history |
| Key points | The text argues that dreams served nineteenth-century philosophers and physician-philosophers as a site for exploring mind-body connections and consciousness, and that dreams also had a moral and motivational role, driving figures such as Benjamin Rush toward abolition and providing abolitionists with a way to depict slavery's suffering. |
Abstract
Dreams were a subject of interest to philosophers thinking about the connection between the mind and the body in the nineteenth century. Many scholars have pointed out that the mind and the body were intimately linked and affected each other. Although science was on its way to becoming more technical and numbers focused in its investigatory practices, medical students and other physician-philosophers investigated the nature of sleep and dreams. Medical students and advanced researchers speculated on the nature of consciousness and mused on where the mind travels to during the sleep processes. Other romantic figures like Dr Polydori speculated on the nature of sleep walking in their medical dissertations. Dreams also had a powerful moral and motivational component, as dreams and activities in dreams, drove people like Benjamin Rush to embrace abolition. Other promoters of abolition used the nature of dreams to discusses the dreadfulness and suffering of slavery.