This is a fascinating study of dreams. It incorporates a summary of dream research pre-dating (and summarized by and lifted by) Freud as well as a host of contemporary studies with such landmarks as the 1950’s identification of REM sleep. It looks at core as well as what some would consider peripheral studies (pre-cognitive and telepathic dreams, e.g.) but it avoids the trap of circumventing key issues. My fear was that the authors would not attempt to address the essential questions but would, instead, hover around the edges amid a swirl of vague generalities. In fact, they do offer their own master theory (though it remains—if they are correct—somewhat vague by necessity).
It is termed NEXTUP (‘network exploration to understand possibilities’). One could also say ‘to explore possibilities’. Basically, it relies on some hard science—the fluctuation of some neurotransmitters during different sleep stages—to suggest that there are weak connections within our neural networks that could be associated, highlighted and explored for potential insight: to understand our past experience and offer suggestions for future ratiocination and problem solving. The ‘associationist’ side is particularly interesting, since associationism was an important area of 18thc epistemology. It was a particular feature of the thought of David Hartley after whom Coleridge named a son (another child was named ‘Berkeley’, another ‘Derwent’).
In other words, we already utilize strong connections in our brain (often related to intense, emotional experiences) to explore thoughts, life and the world, but our amazing, canny brain realizes that there might be some things that we could learn from the more shadowy and vague memories that we carry; in dreams we connect/link/jumble possibilities. This is not a clear, linear and directly causal activity, but a matter of the brain’s working and exploring in the background. It is always working, after all, and here it may just find something of use.
This NEXTUP process is related to the DMN, the default mode network. Put most simply, this is the domain of ‘mind wandering’ and one of the more interesting discussions in the book concerns the possibility that this ‘mind wandering’ is very important in our lives and cognition but is now disrupted and in some ways marginalized by our incessant listening via earpods and reading via cell phones, whose impact is not fully known but clearly of concern for our physical and psychological well being.
My only criticism of the book concerns one of its strengths—its ranging far and wide over contemporary interests and research areas. This is interesting when the individual examples are of interest to the reader. When they are not, this material feels like ‘filler’ or tangential to the core argument. The problem (and the reason why this criticism should not be taken too seriously) is that the brain is vastly subtle and complex and we still know very, very little about it. Hence we are perforce dealing with speculation, potential blind alleys and, yes, guesswork. The bottom line is that the co-authors are experienced scientists in this field and they are able to convey their knowledge, insight and experience to interested general readers.
Highly recommended.
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Comprhensive and accessible overview of a field that deserves to be more widely known.
The authors do a great job in guiding the nonspecialized reader in a rigorous but enjoyable fashion through the evolution of this under-appreciated but very important field of study; they also advance a very useful model to make sense of it.
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Top reviews from other countries
Julian Williams
An important addition to how we understand consiousness and learning
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 29, 2021cmaxwelll
My own dreams are more interesting.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2022