Scavenger Hunt:
J. Allan Hobson’s Dreaming: An Introduction
to the Science of Sleep
I’ll display a question or task. The first student to come up with an
answer gets a piece of candy; answers must include page numbers
and must be accurate and thorough. If nobody comes up with an
answer within three minutes, I’ll give you page numbers. After that,
the same rules apply. A second student must find a way to make a
connection to Freud, Jung, or Hartmann. Possible connections
include: noting similarities, noting differences, noting analogous
ideas described in different language, etc. This student also gets a
piece of candy. At the end, the student with the most candy gets a
whole bag. It’s up to this student whether to share!
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
•What form of “psychosis” does dreaming resemble most?
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
•What form of “psychosis” does dreaming resemble most?
•Define phenomenology.
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
•What form of “psychosis” does dreaming resemble most?
•Define phenomenology.
•What are some differences between NREM dreams and REM dreams?
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
•What form of “psychosis” does dreaming resemble most?
•Define phenomenology.
•What are some differences between NREM dreams and REM dreams?
•Whose research suggests dreaming may play a role in memory consolidation?
The Questions and Tasks
• Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain
why you think Hobson uses them.
•Explain the difference, according to Hobson, between dream form and dream
content.
•Find a moment when Freud is criticized indirectly.
•Define isomorphism.
•Find a moment when Freud is praised.
•Explain the “activation-synthesis” theory of dreaming.
•What is the Dream Journal of the Engine Man?
•What form of “psychosis” does dreaming resemble most?
•Define phenomenology.
•What are some differences between NREM dreams and REM dreams?
•Whose research suggests dreaming may play a role in memory consolidation?
•What two predecessors did Freud “ignore”?
Groups
Hasina, Sara, Brett
Jocelyn, Michael, Serenei
Chris, Elyse, Joanne
Danabelle, Alison, Eileen
Fotini, Kathleen, Shane, Melissa
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
• 1883 – 1924; born in Prague (now Czech Republic); died of
tuberculosis (in Vienna, Freud’s city!)
• Kafkaesque: Kafka’s writing often used to describe moments
in real life that are bizarre, nightmarish, Byzantine, or
drowning in bureaucracy.
• Wrote fantastical fiction, often with philosophical or political
overtones: Meditation (including “Children on a Country
Road”; 1913), The Metamorphosis (1915), “The Judgment”
(1916), In the Penal Colony (1919), “A Country Doctor” (1919),
The Trial (1925).
• In his journal, Kafka wrote “Thoughts about Freud, naturally”
to describe what he was thinking about when he wrote “The
Judgment.”
Franz Kafka
A Case Study for Using Dream Theory
to Interpret Literature
J. Allan Hobson asks the following questions about the relationship between memory
and sleep (p. 129):
1. As declarative memory (memory that results from conscious awareness and
associations) depends so strongly on an intact hippocampus, are our daytime
experiences temporarily stored there for further processing?
2. Are bits of declarative memory, but not entire scenarios, transferred out of the
hippocampus when the brain is reactivated in REM sleep?
Dreams and Literary Interpretation
We might ask equivalent questions with regard to the relationship between dreams
and literary interpretation:
1. How do nonlinear narratives represent the world differently from linear ones?
Might dream interpretation offer some clues about how to find meaning in
nonlinear narratives?
2. Does the act of reading share anything with dreaming?
3. Does the act of writing share anything with dreaming?
4. What are some of the ways a powerful work of literature might affect the psyche
of a reader? Might the study of dreams offer any clues?
5. Why do so many writers draw on dreams in their work—either explicitly (as in a
story or poem that includes literal dreams) or implicitly (as in a story or poem
that seems to borrow from dream logics or aesthetics)?
In your groups, choose one of these questions, or come up with one of your own. Find
a passage in one of Kafka’s stories that might be used as evidence to address this
question. Then, come up with an idea from one of the dream theories we’ve read
that helps you understand this passage in relation to your question. See if you
can offer an answer (keeping in mind that it will be tentative—not definitive).