Rivals

Freud's contemporary, Carl Jung, ended up being a rival of sorts to Freud. Whereas Freud believed in the more intangible, Carl Jung felt the need to define the consciousness first. Similarly, even now, several researchers have diverged in their thinking. Allan Hobson and Mark Solms are the two dream researchers with rivaling theories.

Hobson and Solms have several differences, all of which involve brain stem and neurophysiological. Their first major empirical difference concerns what they believe to be the origins of dreaming. According to Hobson, dreaming has its origins in the same region that creates rapid eye movement sleep, which is said to produce signals that activate the fore-brain and force it to make the best sense that it can. This is the key reason why dreams are allegedly bizarre and disjointed. More recently, Hobson has acknowledged that there is a greater degree of fore-brain control in the REM part than he had originally thought, through the hypothalamus.

On the other hand, Solms believes that dreaming is possible without REM, as proven by his research with brain-injured patients. In conjunction with other research, his findings led him to locate the origins of dreaming in the ventral tegmental area of the brain, which is shifted from Hobson's point of origin.

So, it's very easy to see just how differently the two researchers thought, if the sole origin of the process seems to be up to debate. It led to the conclusion that even the importance of REM was not definite anymore.

Though, this adds a certain hopelessness towards dream research since even the origin of dreaming biologically is now more ambiguous that ever, I seem to find optimism in it. It made me realize that it's that much more important to continue dream research. I'm glad there are these diverging theories because it provided different perspectives on the entirety of dreaming. It provides hope and motivation in that this field of study does contain purpose.