Scavenger Hunt: J. Allan Hobson’s Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep

1. 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!

2. The Questions and Tasks Find two references to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and explain why you think Hobson uses them.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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.

11. 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?

12. 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?

13. 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”?

14. Groups Hasina, Sara, Brett Jocelyn, Michael,Serenei Chris, Elyse, Joanne Danabelle, Alison, Eileen Fotini, Kathleen, Shane, Melissa

15. Franz Kafka

16. 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.”

17. Franz KafkaA 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): • 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? • Are bits of declarative memory, but not entire scenarios, transferred out of the hippocampus when the brain is reactivated in REM sleep?

18. Dreams and Literary Interpretation We might ask equivalent questions with regard to the relationship between dreams and literary interpretation: • 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? • Does the act of reading share anything with dreaming? • Does the act of writing share anything with dreaming? • 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? • 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).