Dreaming Souls: Sleep, Dreams and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind

by Owen J. Flanagan

What, if anything, do dreams tell us about ourselves? What is the relationship between types of sleep and types of dreams? Does dreaming serve any purpose? Or are dreams simply meaningless mental noise--"unmusical fingers wandering over the piano keys"?
With expertise in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, Owen Flanagan is uniquely qualified to answer these questions. And in Dreaming Souls he provides both an accessible survey of the latest research on sleep and dreams and a compelling new theory about the nature and function of dreaming. Flanagan argues that while sleep has a clear biological function and adaptive value, dreams are merely side effects, "free riders," irrelevant from an evolutionary point of view. But dreams are hardly unimportant. Indeed, Flanagan argues that dreams are self-expressive, the result of our need to find or to create meaning, even when we're sleeping. Rejecting Freud's theory of manifest and latent content--of repressed wishes appearing in disguised form--Flanagan shows how brainstem activity during sleep generates a jumbled profusion of memories, images, thoughts, emotions, and desires, which the cerebral cortex then attempts to shape into a more or less coherent story. Such dream-narratives
range from the relatively mundane worries of non REM sleep to the fantastic confabulations of deep REM that resemble psychotic episodes in their strangeness. But however bizarre these narratives may be, they can shed light on our mental life, our well being, and our sense of self.
Written with clarity, lively wit, and remarkable insight, Dreaming Souls offers a fascinating new way of apprehending one of the oldest mysteries of mental life.

Genres: Philosophy, Psychology, Science, Nonfiction, Neuroscience, Brain

228 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 1999

About the author

Owen Flanagan, Ph.D. (born 1949) is the James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University. Flanagan has done work in philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, ethics, contemporary ethical theory, moral psychology, as well as Buddhist and Hindu conceptions of the self.

Flanagan earned his Ph.D from Boston University and his Bachelor of arts degree from Fordham University.

Flanagan has written extensively on consciousness. He has been realistic about the difficulty of consciousness as a scientific and philosophical problem, but optimistic about the chance of solving the problem. One of the problems in a study of consciousness is the hidden way in which conscious states are dependent on brain states. Flanagan has proposed that there is a "natural method" to go about understanding consciousness that involves creating a science of mind. Three key elements of this developing science are: 1) paying attention to subjective reports on conscious experiences, 2) incorporating the results from psychology and cognitive science, and 3) including the results from neuroscience that will reveal how neuronal systems produce consciousness.

Flanagan is currently on the Editorial Board of Greater Good Magazine, published by the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley. Flanagan's contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Fla...

Reviews

[John Reis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is true that we might dream about something that is important and current, as Flanagan says, but it is not necessarily insightful. Flanagan's own position stems from an evolutionary starting point. Is dreaming an adaptation? He thinks not. He starts with sleep which he thinks is adaptive and argues that dreaming is a spandrel-- a natural byproduct of sleep which was not designed but just happened. I think this is wrong. I think you have to keep the motor running. Higher order focus may shut down, motor activity may shut down but the system as a whole does not shut down; It goes into idle.

His foray into dream interpretation is overlong and simple. His discussion of its meaning and whether we are awake when we are actually dreaming and vice versa is good. His criticism of Freud is simple, genteel.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why are philosophers always getting their panties in a twist over nothing?

[Lavanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am very interested in dream interpretation but this book went into too much technical detail and felt more like a textbook

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoughtful introduction to sleep and dreams from biological and philosophical perspectives. His exposition of the problems is very clear and, though I initially found some passages repetitive, I was grateful for this later on. His style is witty in the manner of a good college lecturer, though he never falls into the (apparently unavoidable) trap of overdoing it.
Only one part of the analysis seemed shallow to me. His discussion of the philosophical problem of distinguishing between dream and reality degraded to the simpler (but less interesting) separation of dream experience from waking experience.
There is a very interesting view of neurology research into sleep and dreams as of 2000.

[Scott Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not what Freud things of your dreams. It's what Freud thinks of Freud's dreams, and what you think of your dreams. A very solid read for those who get weary of dream studies. This makes a lot of sense.

[Vera · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting discussion of dreaming, and why and how it developed.