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This article examines the ongoing debate between activation-synthesis theorist J. Allan Hobson and psychoanalytic theorist Mark Solms about the nature of dreaming and dream content. After discussing their neurophysiological disagreements, it argues that they are more similar than different in some important ways, especially in talking about dreams in the same breath as psychosis and in drawing conclusions about dream content on the basis of their neurophysiological assumptions, without any reference to the systematic findings on the issue. Evidence from inside and outside the sleep laboratory on the coherent nature of most dreams is presented to demonstrate that neither theorist is on solid ground in his main assertions. Dreaming is usually a far more realistic and understandable enactment of interests and concerns than the 2 researchers assume. In addition, several of Hobson's and Solms's claims concerning the neural basis of dreaming are challenged on the basis of neurophysiological evidence.

The running battle between activation-synthesis theorist J. Allan Hobson and psychoanalytic theorist Mark Solms since 1997, which heated up in a special issue of Behavioral and Brain Sciences in 2000, continued in books they separately published in 2002, and spilled into the pages of Scientific American in 2004, shows no signs of resolution (Hobson, 2000, 2002, 2004; Hobson, Pace-Schott, & Stickgold, 2000a; Solms, 1997, 2000b, 2004; Solms & Turnbull, 2002). It is the purpose of this article to critique all aspects of this debate. The article first outlines the substantive differences between the rival theorists and then presents several little-remarked similarities that give their debate some of its impact. It next discusses their claims in the light of systematic empirical findings on dreams from inside and outside sleep laboratories, concluding that the two researchers' most important assertions about the nature of dreaming and dream content are mistaken. In addition, this article shows that some of the men's speculations concerning the neurophysiology of dreaming are as questionable as...