Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research.

ABSTRACT: Dreams are still an enigma of human cognition, studied extensively in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. According to the Freudian dream theory and Solms' modifications of the unconscious derived from it, the fundamental task of meeting our emotional needs is guided by the principle of homeostasis. Our innate value system generates conscious feelings of pleasure and unpleasure, resulting in the behavior of approaching or withdrawing from the world of objects. Based on these experiences, a hierarchical generative model of predictions (priors) about the world is constantly created and modified, with the aim to optimize the meeting of our needs by reducing prediction error, as described in the predictive processing model of cognition. Growing evidence from neuroimaging supports th

SUBMITTER: Koslowski M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9978341 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature