The Truth matters

I take a cue from a recent post by an important and well-establihed psychoanalytic Italian institution. Basically the post reported the freudian perspective which sees dream as an hallucinatory fullfiment of repressed wishes.

Freud's work "The Interpretation of Dreams" is certainly a landmark in the field of psychoanalysis and has been highly influential in shaping modern theories of dreams and the unconscious mind. In this book, Freud describes dream as "a (disguised) fulfillment of a (suppressed or repressed) wish." (Freud, 1900, p. 113), arguing that dreams are a way for satisfying desires that are otherwise repressed or unacceptable at a conscious level. The post moved on giving emphasis to this view, adding Segal and Khan contributions, that basically were in the same direction, but totally ignoring another side of the same history.

Perhaps being aware of what goes on in our brain while dreaming, may help to shed some light on dreams and their multifaceted meanings and functions.?

It is not only the dopamine circuits (i.e., related to the appetitive aspects, or in psychoanalytic terms pleasure/desire) to be involved in REM phase while dreming, but recent neuroscientific findings provide evidence of the activation of the default mode network (DMN).

In very simple words, default mode network (DMN) - also known as the "resting-state network" - is a circuit formed by different brain regions which become activated when our mind is relaxed and not engaged in a specific task/goal (as in sleep for example, but not only!). The purpose of DMM is basically processing inputs about ourselves and others. So while we dream, the mind is involved in an introspective-reflective activity, which serve both to process autobiographical memories, and build predictive models about the future in order to provide a better adaptation to reality.?

Following the 'reasoning' of the post (note: there are no good/bad dreams as proposed in the post), when we wake up interrupting a dream, for example a nightmare, it is because there has been an overload in the processing system. There are flourishes of articles on this specific topic, including those written by psychoanalyst and friends, such as Sverre Varvin, Tamara Fishmann, Marianne Leuzingher Bohleber, etc.. So, nightmares or interrupted dreams are failed attempts of processing some memories related with previous lived stressful circumastances or traumatic experiences, which our mind has conveyed and transformed in symbolic images.?

Dreams are NOT just the realization of an uncounscious desire as originally porposed by Freud in 1900, and still re-proposed today in 2023 in this post. Dreaming, in fact, is a complex mental activity which seems to have an elaborative/adaptive function, and implies multiple processes and related neuroanatomical substrates. To sum up, dreaming has multiple purposes, such as:

1) consolidation of memories

2) emotional regulation

3) problem-solving and future planning (see metacognition)

4) traumatic experience processing (see Ferenczi's writing, if we want to remain in the psychoanalytic field, on the "traumatophilic function" of dreams in response to and critique of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, for those who have not read it here is the reference: Ferenczi, S. (1913). "The function of the dream." The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1, 291-301).

In his book "The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain," the nobel prize Eric Kandel writes:

"Psychoanalysis remains a highly influential and thought-provoking approach to understanding the human mind, and it continues to inspire new insights and ideas in neuroscience and related fields. However, it is not a scientific theory in the usual sense, and it has been criticized for its lack of empirical support and methodological rigor. Nevertheless, its focus on unconscious mental processes, developmental experiences, and the role of emotions and relationships in shaping behavior and mental life make it a highly complex and sophisticated theory of the mind." (Kandel, 2012, p. 3).

I guess it is not just the lack of empirical support and methodological rigor the main causes of the the progressive decline of psychoanalysis and its almost total disappearance from hospitals and academia (to the great detriment of humanity!). Behind that, there are the resistances of psychoanalysts to change!

I think it is crucial not to remain rigidly anchored in a self-referential view of reality and be opened to contributions from other disciplines, integrating our knowledge and constantly updating it. Otherwhise, the risk is to offer a superficial - when not falsified by more recent findings - view of how things works, that is quite the opposite of the real intent of psychoanalysis (i.e. which is, incidentally, a deep analysis and understanding of processes to gain a more comprehensive view of our mind and interpersonal dynamics).

Good Sunday to all ???

PS I put an article from Nature, but there are plenty of other equally authoritative and valid sources?

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn2716#:~:text=Brain%20activation%20and%20sleep%20occurs%20early%20in%20the,that%20we%20too%20were%20%28and%20still%20are%29%20protoconscious