Hey Alexandra,

When you mentioned Freud's theory being "there was a mental structure that not only made up plots etc for the other mental structure to 'watch'" I assumed that the mental structures were physically separate, not intertwined.

With fMRI, straight females have a very particular area of the brain that "lights up" when she smells a man. Lesbian brains don't do that. Nor do men's. So, I figured that if Freud was right, the areas of the brain he implied existed would light up in the fMRI scan.

As far as lie detecting goes, when people recall an event, many areas light up, some having to do with memory. When asked to make up a story, there were a couple other areas of the brain being used, in addition to some of the others used to recall a story. The researchers claimed lie detection was a piece of cake. Or, so says the reporter at livescience.com.

Sociopaths have a problem where a certain portion of the brain does not work, but it does work in the rest of us. This part was used for empathy. When we saw someone else experience an emotion, we felt it too, and that part of our brain lit up. The sociopath "felt" nothing, according to the fMRI.

I think you can do a search at livescience.com for old articles. Try a search on fMRI.

But maybe Perna is right. I can't figure out my dreams because I can't figure out real life, and dreams simply mimic life.

If that's true, I would be rally upset at my subconscious, and make him go sit in the corner!