Commentary/L\ewe]\yn: Elaborative encoding [Heidegger 1999].) That it only "seems to be real" is somediing we add in retrospect. Llewellyn tells us, as did Freud (1899/1999) more than a centuiy ago, that "the stuff of dreams is the stuff of memory" (abstract) and that hyperassociated memories (cf Freud's "primary process") are integrated into compositional wholes that have never been present to die senses. (Freud, too, called his dream theory "compositional.") Memory elements are "merged and fused to constmct visual scenes" (sect. 1, para, 2), which are experienced as realistic. Hyperassociations wrought between episodic memories through elaborative encoding engender a fabricated visual image, (sect. 8, para. 3) This often bizarre, composite [dream] image has not been present to the senses; it is not "real" because it hyperassociates several memories, (abstract, para. 2) That the bizarre composite image is not real is a detached assessment made by a judicious waking self, not by a dream self frantically mnning for his hfe from a dream tiger! As Llewellyn states regarding her quicksand dream, "I never doubt that the events portrayed are actually unfolding in 'real time' before my eyes" (sect. 4.2.3, para. 1). But how a relating, binding, integrating, compositing, merging, fusing, constmcting, engendering, fabricating, synthesizing process might work on a mishmash of elaboratively encoded memories so as to hoist an authentic seamless world at times indistinguishable from the tuorld of waking life is left unexplained by Llewellyn. To the deconstmctive eye, the very proliferation of such terms, all appUed by Llewellyn to basically the same idea, signals something awry in her argument: an emphasis on the cognitive at the expense of the perceptual. Since some dream content is easily seen as a revival of memory traces, die lacuna in the argument is easily passed over. The sun sparkling on the water, cMdren playing on the beach...tliese she has likely seen previously, and it seems plausible that diis part of die dream could be merely revived and composited memory images...but then a grown-up throws a child across the sand; the child lands on his or her ear and disappears into the sand; another chüd/baby is thrown...so vividly real is the quicksand that Llewellyn wakes up terrified! Surely Llewellyn has never seen such a specific scene in the past. How might one's thrownness amidst an authentic, unique, unified world during dreaming be achieved from a set of episodic disparate memory traces, whatever their hyperassociation? That world thrownness during dreaming (which may even be consciously created in the case of "lucid dreaming" [LaBerge 1985] can be indiscernible from that of waking should give us pause: Indiscemibles demand the same explanation. If the dreamer can find herself thrown amidst an audientic world when sensory informing is shut down, then this raises the most peculiar and frightening possibility that there is no world actually out there in waldng either, despite our always finding ourselves already amidst one. Both waking and dreaming worlds might be continually created de novo, a "formative creativity" (Globus 1987), radier than transformative of sensory inputs and memory traces. If world thrownness is a formative constmction, this need not start us down a shppery slope to a God-dependent idealism along Berkeleyan soUpsistic hnes (Foster 1982) or to an idealistic Borgesian metaphysics (Borges 1998). I have proposed instead a species of monadology in which physical reality is stricdy quantum at all scales, an "abground" (Heidegger 1999) closed to observation, whereas die presencing world is a "dis-closure" constituted by living dissipative brains operating with quantum degrees of freedom (Globus 2003; 2009) under die logic of quantum thermofield brain dynamics (VitieUo 1995; 2001). The dream world, I suggest, is not a cognitive compositing by a rapid eye movement (REM)-sleepy ¿ricoieur using the hyperassociated memory trace materials at hand, not a transfonnative creation but an episodic fonnative process out of the "unknowable and unspeakable" (Bell 1987) abground of the quantum realm.
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BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2013) 36:6
The wake world, too, is a dis-closure, but witli the added benefit of an input operator on tlie disclosive process. In that the fantastic dream world is so ephemeral and quickly forgotten, we take it to be cognitive play and miss its profound significance. The dream is via regia to ontology.
A three-legged stool needs a stronger third leg doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001349 Ramon Greenberg Department of Psychiatry, Han/ard Medical School, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, MA 02115. [email protected]
Abstract: VVliereas the target article stresses the neurobiology and psychology of dreams, this commentary emphasizes that the role of dreams in emotional integration and adaptation contributes to a fuller understanding of dreaming and memory. The dream presented in the target article is used, witliin tlie constraints of space, as a possible example of a broader approach to dream material.
The target article is a remarkably scholarly, comprehensive discussion of memory research (see the lengthy hst of references) and its relation to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Llewellyn uses as an organizing principle the ancient art of memory (AAOM) - the way our ancestors supported memory before die age of print and die Intemet. Significant memory was not just leaming by rote but an active process requiring creative activity. Llewellyn Hkens • the activity in REM sleep to AAOM. She accepts the idea that dreaming is mainly a phenomenon associated with REM sleep and proposes that dreams represent a vivid example of AAOM in action. She bases her arguments on her extensive review of "neurobiology and psychology" (sect. 1, para. 4), which has clearly supported the role of REM sleep in memory organization. The point of this commentary is to suggest that neurobiology and psychology are two long and strong legs of a three-legged stool, but that to fully understand die role of REM sleep and dreaming a third leg must be equally strong. This third leg, I would contend, is the information that has been accumulated from our clinical and research work with human subjects' dreams. Although Llewellyn touches on research on human subjects dreams, this infonnation as presented in the target article lacks the emphasis and depth of the other two legs. Early studies of REM sleep and memory proposed that REM sleep was involved in memory consohdation (Greenberg 1970). This tumed out to be accurate, to some degree, but it also eventually proved to be more complicated than just consolidation (Greenberg et al. 1970). Some types of memory seemed to be REM dependent wliile others didn't. Llewellyn uses the semantic-versus-episodic distinction. Greenberg & Pearhnan (1974) prefer Seligman's (1970) preparedversus-unprepared-leaming formulation as an effort to explain why word-list or one-trial leaming do not seem to require REM sleep whereas more complicated tasks for animals and emotionally adaptive requirements for humans are REM dependent (Greenberg & Pearlman 1974). This fonniJation about differences in types of information that require REM sleep points to the idea that, as die author and many earlier writers (Breger et al. 1971; French & Fromm 1964; Greenberg & Pearhnan 1975) suggest, diere is an "integration of recent memories with remote parts of associative memories or networks." More important is the nature of such memories. Llewellyn refers to literature suggesting that the emotional dimension is important in the memories. Llewellyn does not really spell out the actual natiu'e of this emotional dimension, however, and I would like to remind readers of some research that makes this clearer. Llewellyn points to Freud's statement that dreams have images from the previous day's experience. However, Freud (1900) talked about these images as indifferent. It would seem
CommentaryíLleweüyn: Elaborative encoding that this is one place where Freud did not really get it (Greenberg & Pearbnan 1978). French and Fromm (1964) pointed to dreams and their manifest content as containing important images related to the patient's "focal conflict." We (Greenberg & Pearlnian 1978) demonstrated how in Freud's own classical "Specimen dream," where he again talks about indifferent day residue, he misses the veiy emotionally important day residue. That dream, in die manifest content, actually portrays an event - a failed operation on a patient diat was so very important to Freud's self-esteem. We also presented findings from the sleep lab for a patient in psychoanalysis (Greenberg & Pearlnian 1975). Again die manifest images relate to emotionally significant issues for the patient. The results of our studies (Greenberg et al. 1992) suggest that what is in the dream is emotionally significant and that what is emotionally significant from waking life is what appears in die dream. If one considers these findings meaningful, then the statement "'frustrating dearth' of evidence on dream constmction and its possible functions" (sect. 1, para. 2) is missing die point. Only in the world of nonclinical research can one miss die connection (bridge) between the clearly demonstrated and pretfy much accepted role of REM sleep in memory and the idea diat the kind of memories integrated in human dreams are mainly connected with the organization of emotionally meaningful and active issues with which the dreamer has been struggling while awake and continues to try to resolve during dreaming. Dreams show clearly how the dreamer sometimes succeeds in integrating and resolving the waking issues or at odier times fails to integrate and has nightmares or repetitive dreams that faü to show any resolution (Greenberg et al. 1992). These ideas build on the early and much more cognitive proposals about REM sleep and memory consolidation. An example of how diis might be approached can be considered in relation to the "Quicksand" dream in the target article. This is presented as an example of a way to think about dreains and die day residue radier than a considered demonstration of the emotional salience of die dream. One should approach a dream widiin die context of its occurrence. In this case, Llewellyn has chosen to present the dream in die context of proposing an important, elaborate framework for understanding tlie operation of memory functions in dreams. Her effort is impressive both in the amount of hterature she has mastered and in the qualify of her ideas. I do not think it is any stretch to suggest that this effort has been a major preoccupation and coneem of hers (only she can confirm this) and that one might wonder how this might show up in the dream. Because of space limitations, I can only suggest that one might think about her efforts to create a new bridge in our thinking about dreams and perhaps her fear, as she stmggled with this enormous effort, diat she might fail and be swallowed by the quicksand - or, put another way, wiU anyone buy her new dieoretical house? 'The story in die dream and her associations certainly encompass great hopes and great fears. This commentary is a very sketchy presentation of ideas about a fuller approach to the understanding of dreams, which might be added to Llewellyn's extremely thorough and well-presented discussion. I hope these ideas will make the third leg as substantial as those of neurobiology and cognitive psychology.
The ancient art of memory doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001350 Allan Hobson Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02130. [email protected] www.dreamstage-museum.net/aiianhobson/index.html
Abstract: Revision of Freud's theory requires a new way of seeking dream meaning. With tlie idea of elahorative encoding. Sue Llewellyn has
provided a method of dream interpretation that takes into account both modem sleep science and the ancient art of memory. Her synthesis is elegant and compelling. But is her ^ipothesis testable?
Why are dreams strange? Why are they so difficult to remember? And what is their furiction? We still do not really know die answers to these fundamental questions, which Sue Llewellyn addresses in her provocative article on dreaming as elaborative encoding. Besides being a forceful reminder of die ancient art of memory, I appreciate the effort to tie diis tradition to modem science in an integrative way. For me, die approach links quantitative studies of dream bizarreness (Hobson et al. 1987), the neurophysiology of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Hobson et al. 2000), and the experimental study of sleep and memory (Stiekgold et al. 2001). In essence, Llewellyn is telling us that dreams are bizarre because their content is scrambled by the altered physiology of REM sleep (low aminergic, high choUnergic tone), which allows fragments of the dream to be reordered to facihtate the efficient storage of emotional sahent information. This theory is capital because it allows us to retain the idea that dreams are, somehow, meaningful whue setting aside the unlikely suggestion of Freud that die function of dreaming is to disguise and conceal unacceptable wishes to protect consciousness (Hobson and McGarley 1977; McGarley and Hobson 1977). Llewellyn's elaborative encoding dieory of is more compatible with the completely opposite view that REM sleep and dreaming are positive collaborators that shape and update waking consciousness (Hobson 2009). My own dieoiy of REM dreams as protoconsciousness is not entirely independent of the idea of elaborative encoding. In fact, die two ideas are not only theoretical cohesive but mutually enhancing by providing a dieoretical mechanism by which diumal waking experience could be integrated with what I take to be the evolutionary memory by .which die genome creates REM as an epigenetic program of virtual reality for the fetal brain. So die good news is theoretical coherence of an entirely novel sort. The bad news regards testability. For elaborative encoding to be more dian literary window dressing, it is essential to propose experimental tests to prove it wrong, and I must confess that I do not see how this can be done. Anecdotal selfanalysis wül not do here. We must not tolerate neo-Freudianism, no matter how brilliant. WiU Sue Llewellyn, the experimentalist, please stand up?
REi\/l sieep and dreaming functions beyond reductionism doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001362 Roumen Kirov Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, SG-J 713 Sofia, Bulgaria. [email protected] [email protected] http://www.bio.bas.bg/neurobiology/EN/index.htm
Abstract: Brain activation pattems and mental, electrophysiological, and neurobiological features of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggest more functions tlian only elaborative encoding. Hence, the periodic occurrence of REM sleep episodes and dreaming may be regarded as a recurrent adaptive interference, which incorporates recent memories into a broader vital context comprising emotions, basic needs and individual genetic traits.
The target article makes a parallel between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreaming and principles of the ancient art of memory (AAOM), thus proposing a role for REM sleep dreaming state in elaborative encoding of episodic memories. First, in the target article, LleweUyii argues that REM sleep dreaming renders recent memories more distinctive through novel and meaningful associations with emotionally salient and remote BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2013) 36:6
621
Copyright of Behavioral & Brain Sciences is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
620
BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2013) 36:6
The wake world, too, is a dis-closure, but witli the added benefit of an input operator on tlie disclosive process. In that the fantastic dream world is so ephemeral and quickly forgotten, we take it to be cognitive play and miss its profound significance. The dream is via regia to ontology.
A three-legged stool needs a stronger third leg doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001349 Ramon Greenberg Department of Psychiatry, Han/ard Medical School, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston, MA 02115. [email protected]
Abstract: VVliereas the target article stresses the neurobiology and psychology of dreams, this commentary emphasizes that the role of dreams in emotional integration and adaptation contributes to a fuller understanding of dreaming and memory. The dream presented in the target article is used, witliin tlie constraints of space, as a possible example of a broader approach to dream material.
The target article is a remarkably scholarly, comprehensive discussion of memory research (see the lengthy hst of references) and its relation to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Llewellyn uses as an organizing principle the ancient art of memory (AAOM) - the way our ancestors supported memory before die age of print and die Intemet. Significant memory was not just leaming by rote but an active process requiring creative activity. Llewellyn Hkens • the activity in REM sleep to AAOM. She accepts the idea that dreaming is mainly a phenomenon associated with REM sleep and proposes that dreams represent a vivid example of AAOM in action. She bases her arguments on her extensive review of "neurobiology and psychology" (sect. 1, para. 4), which has clearly supported the role of REM sleep in memory organization. The point of this commentary is to suggest that neurobiology and psychology are two long and strong legs of a three-legged stool, but that to fully understand die role of REM sleep and dreaming a third leg must be equally strong. This third leg, I would contend, is the information that has been accumulated from our clinical and research work with human subjects' dreams. Although Llewellyn touches on research on human subjects dreams, this infonnation as presented in the target article lacks the emphasis and depth of the other two legs. Early studies of REM sleep and memory proposed that REM sleep was involved in memory consohdation (Greenberg 1970). This tumed out to be accurate, to some degree, but it also eventually proved to be more complicated than just consolidation (Greenberg et al. 1970). Some types of memory seemed to be REM dependent wliile others didn't. Llewellyn uses the semantic-versus-episodic distinction. Greenberg & Pearhnan (1974) prefer Seligman's (1970) preparedversus-unprepared-leaming formulation as an effort to explain why word-list or one-trial leaming do not seem to require REM sleep whereas more complicated tasks for animals and emotionally adaptive requirements for humans are REM dependent (Greenberg & Pearlman 1974). This fonniJation about differences in types of information that require REM sleep points to the idea that, as die author and many earlier writers (Breger et al. 1971; French & Fromm 1964; Greenberg & Pearhnan 1975) suggest, diere is an "integration of recent memories with remote parts of associative memories or networks." More important is the nature of such memories. Llewellyn refers to literature suggesting that the emotional dimension is important in the memories. Llewellyn does not really spell out the actual natiu'e of this emotional dimension, however, and I would like to remind readers of some research that makes this clearer. Llewellyn points to Freud's statement that dreams have images from the previous day's experience. However, Freud (1900) talked about these images as indifferent. It would seem
CommentaryíLleweüyn: Elaborative encoding that this is one place where Freud did not really get it (Greenberg & Pearbnan 1978). French and Fromm (1964) pointed to dreams and their manifest content as containing important images related to the patient's "focal conflict." We (Greenberg & Pearlnian 1978) demonstrated how in Freud's own classical "Specimen dream," where he again talks about indifferent day residue, he misses the veiy emotionally important day residue. That dream, in die manifest content, actually portrays an event - a failed operation on a patient diat was so very important to Freud's self-esteem. We also presented findings from the sleep lab for a patient in psychoanalysis (Greenberg & Pearlnian 1975). Again die manifest images relate to emotionally significant issues for the patient. The results of our studies (Greenberg et al. 1992) suggest that what is in the dream is emotionally significant and that what is emotionally significant from waking life is what appears in die dream. If one considers these findings meaningful, then the statement "'frustrating dearth' of evidence on dream constmction and its possible functions" (sect. 1, para. 2) is missing die point. Only in the world of nonclinical research can one miss die connection (bridge) between the clearly demonstrated and pretfy much accepted role of REM sleep in memory and the idea diat the kind of memories integrated in human dreams are mainly connected with the organization of emotionally meaningful and active issues with which the dreamer has been struggling while awake and continues to try to resolve during dreaming. Dreams show clearly how the dreamer sometimes succeeds in integrating and resolving the waking issues or at odier times fails to integrate and has nightmares or repetitive dreams that faü to show any resolution (Greenberg et al. 1992). These ideas build on the early and much more cognitive proposals about REM sleep and memory consolidation. An example of how diis might be approached can be considered in relation to the "Quicksand" dream in the target article. This is presented as an example of a way to think about dreains and die day residue radier than a considered demonstration of the emotional salience of die dream. One should approach a dream widiin die context of its occurrence. In this case, Llewellyn has chosen to present the dream in die context of proposing an important, elaborate framework for understanding tlie operation of memory functions in dreams. Her effort is impressive both in the amount of hterature she has mastered and in the qualify of her ideas. I do not think it is any stretch to suggest that this effort has been a major preoccupation and coneem of hers (only she can confirm this) and that one might wonder how this might show up in the dream. Because of space limitations, I can only suggest that one might think about her efforts to create a new bridge in our thinking about dreams and perhaps her fear, as she stmggled with this enormous effort, diat she might fail and be swallowed by the quicksand - or, put another way, wiU anyone buy her new dieoretical house? 'The story in die dream and her associations certainly encompass great hopes and great fears. This commentary is a very sketchy presentation of ideas about a fuller approach to the understanding of dreams, which might be added to Llewellyn's extremely thorough and well-presented discussion. I hope these ideas will make the third leg as substantial as those of neurobiology and cognitive psychology.
The ancient art of memory doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001350 Allan Hobson Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02130. [email protected] www.dreamstage-museum.net/aiianhobson/index.html
Abstract: Revision of Freud's theory requires a new way of seeking dream meaning. With tlie idea of elahorative encoding. Sue Llewellyn has
provided a method of dream interpretation that takes into account both modem sleep science and the ancient art of memory. Her synthesis is elegant and compelling. But is her ^ipothesis testable?
Why are dreams strange? Why are they so difficult to remember? And what is their furiction? We still do not really know die answers to these fundamental questions, which Sue Llewellyn addresses in her provocative article on dreaming as elaborative encoding. Besides being a forceful reminder of die ancient art of memory, I appreciate the effort to tie diis tradition to modem science in an integrative way. For me, die approach links quantitative studies of dream bizarreness (Hobson et al. 1987), the neurophysiology of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Hobson et al. 2000), and the experimental study of sleep and memory (Stiekgold et al. 2001). In essence, Llewellyn is telling us that dreams are bizarre because their content is scrambled by the altered physiology of REM sleep (low aminergic, high choUnergic tone), which allows fragments of the dream to be reordered to facihtate the efficient storage of emotional sahent information. This theory is capital because it allows us to retain the idea that dreams are, somehow, meaningful whue setting aside the unlikely suggestion of Freud that die function of dreaming is to disguise and conceal unacceptable wishes to protect consciousness (Hobson and McGarley 1977; McGarley and Hobson 1977). Llewellyn's elaborative encoding dieory of is more compatible with the completely opposite view that REM sleep and dreaming are positive collaborators that shape and update waking consciousness (Hobson 2009). My own dieoiy of REM dreams as protoconsciousness is not entirely independent of the idea of elaborative encoding. In fact, die two ideas are not only theoretical cohesive but mutually enhancing by providing a dieoretical mechanism by which diumal waking experience could be integrated with what I take to be the evolutionary memory by .which die genome creates REM as an epigenetic program of virtual reality for the fetal brain. So die good news is theoretical coherence of an entirely novel sort. The bad news regards testability. For elaborative encoding to be more dian literary window dressing, it is essential to propose experimental tests to prove it wrong, and I must confess that I do not see how this can be done. Anecdotal selfanalysis wül not do here. We must not tolerate neo-Freudianism, no matter how brilliant. WiU Sue Llewellyn, the experimentalist, please stand up?
REi\/l sieep and dreaming functions beyond reductionism doi:10.1017/S0140525X13001362 Roumen Kirov Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, SG-J 713 Sofia, Bulgaria. [email protected] [email protected] http://www.bio.bas.bg/neurobiology/EN/index.htm
Abstract: Brain activation pattems and mental, electrophysiological, and neurobiological features of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggest more functions tlian only elaborative encoding. Hence, the periodic occurrence of REM sleep episodes and dreaming may be regarded as a recurrent adaptive interference, which incorporates recent memories into a broader vital context comprising emotions, basic needs and individual genetic traits.
The target article makes a parallel between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreaming and principles of the ancient art of memory (AAOM), thus proposing a role for REM sleep dreaming state in elaborative encoding of episodic memories. First, in the target article, LleweUyii argues that REM sleep dreaming renders recent memories more distinctive through novel and meaningful associations with emotionally salient and remote BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2013) 36:6
621
Copyright of Behavioral & Brain Sciences is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
