Dreaming as delirium: A reply to Bert States

When analyzed from a formal mental states point of view, REM sleep dreaming evinces all four Of the cardinal defining features of delirium: visual hal luncinosis; disorientation; memory loss, and confabulation. This new formul ation is supported by neurobiological findings at the level of neurones and neuromodulators, which indicate a dramatic shift in the balance of the sam e aminergic and cholinergic neuromodulatory systems that mediate delirium u pon the ingestion or withdrawal of drugs that upset that balance. Convinced that all of the symptoms and signs of delirium that have been emphasized a bove could be the natural manifestations of hyperassociation, Bert States h as challenged both the validity and heuristic value of this "Dreaming as De lirium" paradigm. Arguing that no natural process like dreaming can be dysf unctional, and wishing to advance the thesis that all naturally determined mental content obeys the law of associativity, States commits himself to a paradigm of interpretability which is linked to a metaphorical-analogical f unction of memory. States (and most other students of dreaming) have diffic ulty accepting my claim that discontinuity and incongruity are in a dialect ical and oppositional struggle with associativity. These dissociative proce sses, which arise at the neuronal level described by the reciprocal interac tion model, translate into the universal and generically nonsensical aspect s of dream content that are explained by the paradigm of dreaming as deliri um. In this essay, I urge that States and all others who share with me the fond hope of a scientifically respectable approach to the interpretation of dreams, recognize that both associativity and dissociation are hard at wor k in REM sleep dreaming and other autocreative states of mind. Once the bot h/and replaces the either/or mind set, it is possible to separate the emoti onally salient signals from the cognitively disjunctive noise. The same ste p allows us to recognize that all complex natural systems have both functio nal and dysfunctional aspects and that these are sometime mutually enhancin g as well as mutually entailed by the mechanisms that engender them. Turnin g Polonius on his head I thus suggest: Though this be method, yet there's m adness in it!