Dreams: Integrating psychoanalytic and neuroscientific views

Abstract

A comprehensive review was carried out about psychoanalytic studies and the most recent neuroscientific researches about dreams. According to Freud, dreams represent "a (disguised) fulfillment of a (repressed) wish." For several neuroscientists, they are formed based on random stimuli originated from the brainstem and do not have any meaning. However, several studies associate the emotions experienced during waking with the content of dreams. The hypothesis that the dopaminergic mesolimbic-mesocortical system, which is associated with instinctual appetitive craving states, is essential to the formation of dreams brings some endorsement to Freudian theory. Nevertheless, there is no empirical data to support the existence of an instance of censorship that distorts the dreams. It is possible that the dreams play a role in psychological working-through of traumatic memories. In our opinion, psychoanalytic and neuroscientific views about dreams can be complementary and mutually enriching. Copyright © Revista de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul - SPRS.