layout: strict-home-rr title: “Journal of Contemporary Neurology 1999 - Books Received”

BOOKS RECEIVED

The Paradox of Sleep; The Story of Dreaming

By Michel Jouvet, translated by Laurence Garey

Michel Jouvet, perhaps the world's leading researcher on sleep and dream research, is considered responsible for the discovery of paradoxical sleep-- a "new" third state of the brain as different from normal sleep as sleep is from waking. In The Paradox of Sleep , Jouvet takes the reader on a scientific and sociological tour of the history of sleep and dream research, concluding with his own ideas on the function of dreaming.

Jouvet tells the story of a handful of neurobiologists, including himself, who pioneered sleep and dream research in the 1950s. He describes the technical and ideological obstacles they faced and opens his own laboratory to the reader, explaining anatomical, biochemical, and even genetic techniques. He also touches on psychological, philosophical, and metaphysical aspects of sleep and dreaming.

A key section of the book is Jouvet's discussion of why we dream. After summarizing Freud's theory of dreams, he contrasts it with current neurobiological data. Finally, he outlines his own controversial theory about why we dream: to preserve our individuality. Dreaming, claims Jouvet, is necessary for the genetic reprogramming of our brain.

(Preceding adapted by the Editor of The Journal of Contemporary Neurology from the publisher's notes.)

The MIT Press
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1999

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The Integrative Neurobiology of Affiliation

Edited by C. Sue Carter, I. Izja Lederhendler, and Brian Kirkpatrick

This book examines the biological--especially the neural--substrates of affiliation and related social behaviors. Affiliation refers to social behaviors that bring individuals closer together. This includes such associations as attachment, parent-offspring interactions, pair bonding, and the building of coalitions. Affiliations provide a social matrix within which other behaviors, including reproduction and aggression, may occur. While reproduction and aggression also reduce the distance between individuals, their expression is regulated in part by the positive social fabric of affiliative behavior.

Until recently, researchers have paid little attention to the regulatory physiology and neural processes that subserve affiliative behaviors. The integrative approach in this book reflects the constructive interactions between those who study behavior in the context of natural history and evolution and those who study the nervous system.

The book contains the partial proceedings of a conference of the same title held in Washington, DC, in 1996. The full proceedings was published as an annal of the New York Academy of Sciences.

(The preceding was adapted by the Editor of The Journal of Contemporary Neurology from the publisher's notes.)

The MIT Press
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1999