Allan Hobson

John Allan Hobson, M.D. (born June 3, 1933) is an American psychiatrist and dream researcher. He is known for his research on the Rapid eye movement sleep. He is Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus, Harvard Medical School,and Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Biography

Hobson grew up in Hartford, Connecticut.cite web
last = Robert
first = Rose
title = Network on Mind Body Interactions
date = 2004
url= http://www.utmb.edu/mbbh/mbi/members.asp?id=4
accessdate = 2007-03-25 ] In 1955 he obtained his A.B. degree from Wesleyan University. Four years later he earned his MD degree at Harvard Medical School in 1959.

For the following two years he interned at Bellevue Hospital Center, New York. Then in 1960 he was a resident in Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston for a year. Dr. Hobson then traveled to France where he was a Special Fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health for the Department of Physiology at the University of Lyon.

Upon returning to the United States, he went back to the Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston until 1966. The next year he had a son named Ian. Ian was brain-damaged, but would eventually be able to live on his own when he was older. In 2001 he had twin children.

He worked in numerous hospitals and research laboratories over the years and is currently the Director of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. [cite news
last = Dreifus
first = Claudia
title = A CONVERSATION WITH/J. Allan Hobson; A Rebel Psychiatrist Calls Out to His Profession
publisher = The New York Times
date = 2002-08-27
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C06E6DE113CF934A1575BC0A9649C8B63
accessdate = 2007-03-25 ]

Dr. Hobson has received four awards for his work:
* Admission to the Boylston Medical Society
* The Benjamin Rush Gold Medal for Best Scientific Exhibit
* Honorary member of the American Psychiatric Association since 1978.
* Recipient of the 1998 Distinguished Scientist Award of the Sleep Research Society

Work

Dream theories

Dr. Hobson's research specialty is quantifying mental events and correlating them with quantified brain events, with special reference to waking, sleeping and dreaming. He believes that dreams are created when random energy signals reach the brain's cortex during REM sleep. The cortex attempts to make sense of the random inputs it is receiving, which causes dreams. [cite web
last = Hagmann
first = Michael
title = The Distiller of Dreams
date = 1998
url= http://scicom.ucsc.edu/SciNotes/9801/text/dream.html
accessdate = 2007-03-25 ] Dr. Hobson clearly dismisses the idea that there are deep, nonphysiological, or hidden meanings in dreams. He calls such notions "the mystique of fortune cookie dream interpretation." For years he has proven his theories through lab testing with mice and human subjects. [cite web
last = Magnuson
first = Jon
title = Are Humans Wired to Dream?
date = 2002-08-27
url= http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3222
accessdate = 2007-03-25 ]

In addition to his many paid appointments, Dr. Hobson is actively involved with four groups relating to his neurological sleep research: the Society Memberships, the Society for Neuroscience, the Society for Sleep Research, the AAAS, and the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD), for which he used to be president. [cite web
last = President and Fellows of Harvard College
title = Faculty Profile
date = 2006
url=http://sleep.med.harvard.edu/people/faculty/212/J+Allan+Hobson+MD
accessdate = 2007-03-25 ]

Books

Dr. Hobson has published six books that relate to his mental health and dream research. The following is a complete list: [ [http://www.addall.com/author/2109401-1 AddALL.com - browse and compare book price: J. Allan Hobson ] ]

* 1989, "Abnormal States of Brain and Mind"
* 1992, "Sleep and Dreams"
* 1989, "Dreaming Brain"
* 1996, "The Chemistry of Conscious States: How The Brain Changes Its Mind"
* 2000, "Dreaming As Delirium: How the Brain Goes Out of Its Mind"
* 2002, "Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness"
* 2002, "Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep "
* 2002, "Out of Its Mind: Psychiatry in Crisis, a Call for Reform"
* 2005, "13 Dreams Freud Never Had"

References

External links

* cite web
last = IGS, ISGS, and NYSGS
title = From Mind / Body / Experiencing / Environment To MindBodyExperiencingEnvironment
date = 2003-10-23
url=http://www.nysgs.org/oldsite/October%20Newsletter.htm
accessdate = 2007-03-25

* cite web
last = The Mind Science Foundation
title = Tom Slick Research Awards in Consciousness 2005-2006
date = 2007
url= http://www.mindscience.org/research/index.html
accessdate = 2007-03-25