Implications of Recent Dream Research

Abstract

This paper indicates the relevance of recent dream research findings to some of Freud's psychoanalytic contentions on dreaming. The historical development in this field is reviewed, along with recent pertinent laboratory findings. Theories concerning the nature of sleep and experimental work on this are discussed. Some characteristics of the REM and NREM states, along with the phenomena of dream deprivation, have been critically evaluated. The present theories of the biology of dreaming are analysed. Finally, the significance of dream research findings to pertinent psychoanalytic concepts has been examined. Although the research findings partly negate some of Freud's theories about the function and mechanism of dreams, they have not entirely disproved his understanding of the dream work and its relevance to the latent and manifest dream content.