Freud's Hypothesis Research Articles

Cutting the REM nerve: an approach to the adaptive role of REM sleep.

CUTTING THE REM NERVE: AN APPROACH TO THE ADAPTIVE ROLE OF REM SLEEP RAMON GREENBERG, M.D., and CHESTER PEARLMAN, M.D.* Extensive research in the psychophysiology of sleep has failed to demonstrate a function for rapid eye movement (REM) sleep about which all or most investigators would agree. Hennevin and Leconte [1] have recently presented a complete review of the various hypotheses for a function of REM sleep that have so far been presented. Their review concludes that the hypothesis that REM sleep is involved in information processing seems the most tenable and experimentally verifiable of the hypotheses about REM sleep. This hypothesis has been presented by a number of authors [1] and yet has failed to gain general acceptance. We would like to begin with this hypothesis and demonstrate how, with some refining, it can help us organize what has seemed to be a mass of conflicting and contradictory experimental findings. InAn Introduction to the Study ofExperimental Medicine, Claude Bernard [2] made some cogent observations about problems in physiologic research which may be applicable to this situation. In one example [2, p. 199] he described how, while looking for one result, he found exactly the opposite. The experiment involved cutting the cervical sympathetic nerve in the rabbit. He expected to find a fall in skin temperature on the side of the lesion. Instead, he found a striking increase in temperature and circulatory hyperactivity. Most relevant to our present discussion was Bernard's observation that he and other investigators had made this lesion before but had never noticed these changes. They had had no hypothesis to focus their attention on the temperature change. "We had the fact under our eyes and did not see it because it conveyed nothing to our mind. However, it could hardly be simpler to perceive, and since I described it, every physiologist without exception has noted and verified it with the greatest ease." We would like to use Bernard's observation as an analogy and to apply this analogy to the phenomena resulting from REM sleep deprivation (REMD) or "cutting the REM nerve." We will try to show that the procedure of REMD (that is, depriving the organism of *Department of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine. Address: V.A. Hospital , 150 South Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02130. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1974 | 513 the functions of REM sleep), given an organizing hypothesis, leads to similarly verifiable effects which have previously remained hidden in the mass of seemingly contradictory experimental findings. We will try to examine all of the published studies on the effects of REMD. After the seminal discovery that the objective, electrophysiologic signs of REM sleep were associated with dreaming, the expectation arose that the function of dreaming could now be determined. When Dement [3] showed that REMD1 in humans led to an increased pressure for REM sleep, as indicated by a rebound of REM sleep on recovery nights, and some psychologic changes in REMD subjects, this expectation seemed close to fulfillment. Subsequent studies, however, failed to find consistent psychologic changes in REMD subjects [4-8]. This failure led to some disillusionment with the idea that REM sleep or dreaming had an important psychologic function. Was this skepticism warranted, or, as in Bernard's example, were the investigators not looking for the right thing? Perhaps they were influenced by Freud's hypothesis that dreaming served to discharge drive tension. The absence of evidence that REMD regularly produced signs of drive pressure, such as heightened anxiety, supported the conclusion that REMD had no major psychologic effects. On the other hand, studies utilizing the Rorschach or Holzman (an analogue of the Rorschach) tests have consistently indicated that REMD has some psychologic effect in humans. This is in contrast to the finding that repeated use of the Rorschach, without intervening personality change, shows considerable stability [9, pp. 446-460]. In three studies, REMD produced clear changes in these test protocols which differed from those associated with control interruptions of non-REM (NREM) sleep. In our study [10], we found that the changes were specific for each subject. They are best characterized as indications in the REMD projective material of diminishing and shifting of...

Ideas of the Early Sex Education Movement in America, 1890-1920

TOWARD THE END of the nineteenth century American sexual attitudes were beginning to undergo fundamental alteration, for the dominant sexual ideology of sex as restraint was being challenged increasingly by the hitherto radical doctrine of sex as pleasure. The implications of this change in ideology extended far beyond the simple gratification of temporal impulse to the very formation of character and the organization of society, for, as Freud wrote, the manner in which an individual responds to sexuality is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction to life. In turn, the nature of society is significantly influenced according to whether society chooses to resolve the conflict between Eros and Ananke by the repression, renunciation, or acceptance of sexuality. (1) By the 1920s in the United States the older middle-class beliefs that sex was only for procreation and that pleasure was an unfortunate, if inescapable, side effect attached to this function simply to ensure reproduction, were being replaced by belief in which pleasure, independent of conception, was as equally legitimate an end of sexual activity in marriage as was procreation. If Freud's hypothesis is correct, then the study of this change in sexual attitudes may offer significant insights into the very structure of man's responses to society in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (2)

Relationship between aggression and depression. Epidemiological implications of a hypothesis.

THE idea that aggression plays a fundamental role in the development of depression is woven into the fabric of psychiatric thinking. It is half a century since Abraham and Freud first suggested that depression was caused by the introjection of aggressive impulses that had originally been directed externally,^1,2and in spite of the dissenting opinions of Balint,³Bibring,⁴and others, their views are still widely accepted. But Abraham and Freud's hypothesis has a fatal flaw. Like psychoanalytic theory in general, it is formulated in intrapsychic terms. Observable change in the patient's mood or behavior are attributed to intrapsychic events which cannot be observed, only inferred on the basis of the same behavioral changes that they were adduced to explain. As a result, it is incapable of being either confirmed or refuted; after 50 years, there is still no evidence for it or

C. G. JUNG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO PSYCHOANALYSIS.

During a decade which was of decisive importance for the later development of psychoanalysis Jung made many significant contributions. His association experiments confirmed Freud's hypothesis of repression which proved to be the cornerstone of psychoanalytic theory. In turn, Jung applied the knowledge he gained from Freud to dementia praecox and never wavered in his conviction that the illness could be treated by psychological means. By stressing the connection between the physiological and psychological aspects of the disease, he was able to construct the first psychosomatic model for dementia praecox. Jung was instrumetnal in bringing Freud's writings to the attention of the scientific world and later played an important part in organizing the psychoanalytic movement. According to Jung, it was he who suggested to Freud that all psychoanalysts should go through a training analysis(28). Jung's application of psychoanalytic theory to the understanding of myths and their relationship to dreams and neuroses,...

A Survey of Representative Literature on Freud's Death-Instinct Hypothesis 1

A Survey of Representative Literature on Freud's Death-Instinct Hypothesis ¹

Homosexuality and paranoid schizophrenia: a survey of 150 cases and controls.

In this paper, the data obtained from a study of the records of 150 paranoid schizophrenic patients and a control group of 150 non-psychotic patients were presented and discussed in relation to Freud's hypothesis concerning the development of paranoid symptoms. Four consequences of Freud's hypothesis were deduced. Three of the deduced consequences received strong verification from the study, the differences between the paranoid psychotic and control groups being found very significant. The fourth consequence, that we should expect the final delusions and hallucinations of the paranoid group to have prominent sexual content, did not receive verification from the study. Comparison with the control group here was impossible due to the absence of delusions in the control group. Another point needs to be mentioned concerning the present study. This is the fact that two trends may exist together in a personality and yet not necessarily be related. Bleuler originally brought up this point in commenting that homosexuality was very prominent in Schreber's case history, but may not have been the determining factor in the paranoid illness. While the present study, within its limits, lends strong verification to three consequences of Freud's theory, it is possible that future investigation may show the coexistence of the two trends of paranoia and homosexuality to be a coincidental finding. Few psychiatrists dispute that Freud's fecund intelligence was productive of many theories that have deepened our knowledge of psychological functioning. But, it is also a logical fallacy to argue that a theory is verified because it explains certain facts. The process of verification, as utilized in this paper, is the same method used by the vast majority of scientific investigators. We feel that the following studies of this important subject are needed: 1. Studies of the relationship of homosexuality to paranoid schizophrenia in female groups, as compared with control groups. As noted in the literature review, there are only two nonpsychoanalytic case reports dealing with homosexuality and paranoid schizophrenia in females. 2. Studies on this subject utilizing primary source material. A protocol should be drawn up in advance, including definition of terms and categories to be recorded. This protocol should be used in interviewing a random sampling of paranoid schizophrenic patients, and a similar group of non-psychotic patients of varying diagnoses. Other control groups may also be used. The examiners should be free of preconceived opinions regarding the relationship of homosexuality to the paranoid schizophrenic process. Until more scientific studies are made and analyzed, the hypothesis that paranoid psychotic symptoms develop as a defense against emerging unconscious homosexual wishes cannot be regarded as verified.