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Allan Hobson

 

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Allan Hobson



 
 
John Allan Hobson, M.D. (born June 3, 1933) is an American psychiatrist
Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy....
 and dream
Dream

Dreams are sequence s, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping, strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history....
 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.

on grew up in Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the Capital of the Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County, Connecticut on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts....
. In 1955 he obtained his A.B. degree from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private university Liberal arts colleges in the United States founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut, Connecticut....
. Four years later he earned his MD degree at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report....
 in 1959.

For the following two years he interned at Bellevue Hospital Center
Bellevue Hospital Center

Bellevue Hospital Center, founded in 1736, is the oldest public hospital in the United States. It is located in New York City and has been the site of countless milestones in the history of medicine....
, New York.






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John Allan Hobson, M.D. (born June 3, 1933) is an American psychiatrist
Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy....
 and dream
Dream

Dreams are sequence s, sounds and feelings experienced while sleeping, strongly associated with rapid eye movement sleep. The contents and biological purposes of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history....
 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
Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the Capital of the Connecticut. It is located in Hartford County, Connecticut on the Connecticut River, north of the center of the state, south of Springfield, Massachusetts....
. In 1955 he obtained his A.B. degree from Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private university Liberal arts colleges in the United States founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut, Connecticut....
. Four years later he earned his MD degree at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University and currently the #1 medical school in America, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report....
 in 1959.

For the following two years he interned at Bellevue Hospital Center
Bellevue Hospital Center

Bellevue Hospital Center, founded in 1736, is the oldest public hospital in the United States. It is located in New York City and has been the site of countless milestones in the history of medicine....
, 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.

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. 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
Fortune cookie

A fortune cookie is a crisp cookie usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a "fortune" wrapped inside. A "fortune" is a piece of paper with words of faux wisdom or a vague prophecy....
 dream interpretation." For years he has proven his theories through lab testing with mice and human subjects.

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.

Books

Dr. Hobson has published six books that relate to his mental health and dream research. The following is a complete list:

  • 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


External links