DREAMING AS PSYCHOSIS - REREADING HOBSON,ALLAN

This article is a response to Allan Hobson's theory that dreaming is a form of psychosis and functional delirium. Without denying the resemb lances between the two mind-states, or the validity of Hobson's genera l argument that dreaming arises from a chemical ''balancing act,'' I a ttempt to view this theory from a more functional point of view. Th us , I see the central ''psychotic'' characteristics of dreaming-disorien tation, attention deficit, spotty recent memory, confabulation, defici t in intellectual functions, and decline of language usage-as aspects of the dream's metaphorical/analogical function of memory consolidatio n and of the thought process at large. I explore waking variations of the same process.