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The author states her interest in dreaming to be "evolutionary, scientific, and nonsymbolic" (p. xii). She wants to focus on dreams and their interpretations using the framewor k of science, "with its assumptions of testability and commitment to phenomenon as object rath er than subject" (p. xii), in order to "learn more about the world" (p. xii). This is because sc ience "is the best thing we have for telling us what is, rather than what we would like to exist" ( p. xii).
If only Parman had read Thomas Kuhn, Richard Rorty and Mary Hesse (among ot hers) more carefully. Consider her language:
The dream is the ultimate cultural Rorschach. Universal in occurrence among humans and other mammals, it stems from a nonsymbolic surge of arousal from the br ainstem that splays the cerebrum with fireworks. In humans these random fireworks are interpreted by the neocortex and given symbolic shape.... The dream is like an onion, constantly being peeled, but with endless layers. This book is about...