Dreaming as Delirium: How the Brain Goes Out of Its Mind

A cigar is just a cigar again! Psychiatrist and neurophysiologist J. Allan Hobson rouses us from our self-absorption in Dreaming as Delirium, an exploration of what neuroscience has pieced together about our sleeping lives. Freud, after all, was first a neurologist, turning to his theories of symbolic wish fulfillment to cover gaps in contemporary knowledge. While those gaps remain, they narrow a bit each year, and Hobson's unique clinical perspective gives him great insight into what might lie in their depths. Writing with humanistic charm, he weaves personal stories, clinical narrative, and research findings into a wide-ranging theory encompassing attention, desire, motivation, and our nearly desperate need for coherence. Ironically, this need drives us to tell ourselves the craziest stories at night--perhaps, he suggests, because we are experiencing sensations similar to those of hallucinating schizophrenics. While far from conclusive, the evidence Hobson presents strongly suggests that we are closing in on one of the most oldest and most elusive mysteries in human experience. Thoughtful and wise, Dreaming as Delirium shows the reader that hard science can reach the depths of our souls and make us more human, not less. --Rob Lightner