I protest.

A fourth blind mouse.

New Scientist has an interview with Joe Griffin, dream researcher, about dreams and their relationship to depression and other disorders. Griffin claims, among other things, that "brain chemistry is not a cause, it is an effect" of too much introspection leading to too much dreaming.

As is so common in psychology and psychological research, Griffin makes the mistake of mistaking his small piece of the puzzle for the whole thing. It is clear from many studies that depression is linked to insufficient serotonin levels and that this can also be an inherited trait. Of course, it's not yet clear just how much is inherited and how much is related to environment, but it's certain that there are inborn traits that can lead to depression. Griffin, though, ignores this research almost entirely, instead largely blaming conventional therapy for contributing to depression by encouraging introspection.

This is, of course, just silly. Certainly there may be much to Griffin's views with respect to dreaming and depression, but as usual he has only part of the story. Unfortunately, having found that part, he thinks it's the whole thing.

Sigh.