Calvin Hall and the Cognitive Theory of Dreaming

Any survey of modern dream research must include Calvin Hall (1909-1985).  Hall was a behavioral psychologist who explored the cognitive dimensions of dreaming.  His work began before the discovery of REM sleep, so little was known about the biology of sleep and dreams.  Hall drew worldwide attention for his cognitive theory of dreaming, which was among the first scientific theories of dream interpretation based on quantitative analysis… rather than wishful thinking.

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Contemporary Dream Theories Starting with Freud

I’ve been brewing this post series for a long time.  Many readers have asked me to review the influential theories of dream formation that are still at work today.   Unfortunately, in our Western culture, where dreaming has long been considered insignificant, advances have been slow due to a lack of funded research. And no one has yet offered a holistic theory of dreaming that accounts for how dreams form in the brain, what they mean, and why human cultures around the world draw significance from them.   Instead, we have many competing theories, all of which look at different aspects of the dreaming world.

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