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One way to map mind onto brain is to search for neural correlates of mental function. In regard to dreaming, the search should be for correlations between (1) the content and process of the dreaming mind (including the subjective experience of the dreamer), and (2) the neurobiology (physiology and clinical anatomy) of the dreaming brain. That may sound relatively straightforward, but the “mind-brain problem” and the enduring
shadow of Freud's controversial theory have complicated the task.
Study of mind deals with a domain of immaterial phenomena, meanings, and motives. Study of brain deals with a domain of material phenomena, matter, and energy. Mental and brain sciences use different languages and techniques, and their concepts are framed at different levels of abstraction. Simultaneous or parallel study of mind and brain ordinarily reveal covariances or correspondences rather than cause-effect sequences. The logical difficulty in this debate begins with confronting Freud's postulate that the dream is instigated by a wish.
In this discussion I will first review very briefly some of the logical issues concerning interpretation of the neurobiologic findings. Second, I will review clinical psychoanalytic studies that bear directly upon the problem under discussion; and that, taken together with findings from cognitive neuroscience, supplement and complement concepts derived from the neurobiologic disciplines.
Hobson and McCarley (1977) demonstrated that REM is instigated by neurochemical changes in the pons and considered this finding to disprove Freud's postulate. But REM is not the dream. An immaterial mental event such as a wish could not directly cause physicochemical changes in the brain like those in the pons that instigate REM. Likewise, the balance between a