In this wide ranging conversation Mark Solms talks about his seminal research in the '80s on the effect of brain lesions on patient reports of dreaming. After a brief visit to Charcot and Wilbrand in the late 19th cnetury, we discuss the research of Dement and colleagues in the 1950s, when it was discoverd that every 90 minutes or so during sleep our EEG is more like the awake state, with asociated rapid eye movments (REM). We discuss Jouvet's work in the '60s in which the origin of REM sleep was found to be in the brain stem the belief at the time that REM and dreaming were part of the same process, later disproved by the work of Mark and others who found it to be cortical. There's an interesting diversion into culture wars in the science community (where, in his early days, studying something as subjective as dreams was 'unthinkable') before moving on to somnambulism, the implications of all this for Freudian theory and concluding thoughtsabout current dream research including a quite incredible Japanese study. Great conversation with an enthusiastic communicator.

Participants:

Mark Solms, Professor, Department of Neuropsychology, University of Capetown, SA. https://neuroscience.uct.ac.za/contacts/mark-solms

Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk

Mark's books 'The Hidden Spring': https://profilebooks.com/work/the-hidden-spring/

'The Neuropsychology of dreams: https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/the-neuropsychology-of-dreams-a-clinico-anatomical-study/94585/?

Opening and closing music: Prelude to the opera Brainland, composed by Stephen Brown.

Brainland the opera website: www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk

Sketch by KB.

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