J. Allan Hobson and Edward Pace-Schott's Response Commentary by Margaret Gilmore and Edward Nersessian

For the second issue of Neuro-Psychoanalysis, Dr. J. Allan Hobson provided the target paper on the neuroregulation and neurophysiological processes of sleep and dreams. This target paper was followed by formal commentaries on the target paper prepared by three experts in the field of sleep and dreaming, Drs. M. Solms, A. Braun, and M. Reiser. As Hobson's paper and those respondent papers dealt not only with neurophysiological findings but also with aspects of Freud's psychological theory of dreams, the editors of the journal decided that a brief summary of Freud's dream theory would help orient those readers of the journal who might be less familiar with psychoanalytic concepts to the discussion. Therefore, they asked us to write a brief and somewhat simplified synopsis of Freud's psychoanalytic theory of dreams. The editors planned to place the synopsis as the first paper in the journal so that it could serve as a general orientation for the reader. However, at the urging of Dr. Hobson, who was concerned that readers might misread the summary as a target paper, the editors elected to place it at the end of the interchange, as an appendix.

We, the authors of the brief synopsis, were astonished that Hobson and Pace-Schott chose to give such prominence to our little summary in their response to the commentaries. Our surprise was partly the result of the fact that our summary was not prepared as a response to the commentary on Hobson's target paper, but only as an outline of Freud's theory. We are pleased that Hobson chose to address our summary in such detail, and in his “hold no punches” style, as he has given us the opportunity to respond to his target paper and his commentary. It is our hope that our response will further the discussion between neurophysiologists and psychoanalysts.

We appreciate Hobson's careful neurophysiological and neurochemical research establishing the rec