I was very intrigued by premise, a man whose dreams change reality. It was enough to get me to the end. I also love reading speculative fiction of the past, and how seeing how they thought our world would've changed by the new millennium. However, I had quite a few hang-ups with this one. For the majority of the time reading, I had to keep pausing to keep reminding myself to accept that the book was published in 1971, and that's why so much of the dream science was focused on hypnosis and the unconscious. (I like this review
as it explains a bit about the history of psychology.) This dilemma was something that was present for me in [b:The Left Hand of Darkness|18423|The Left Hand of Darkness|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1488213612l/18423._SY75_.jpg|817527] as well, but there's a few reasons why it was more distracting in Lathe. 
Dr. Haber was so methodical and descriptive of his research. It is integral to the story and couldn't be ignored. George Orr was (intentionally) not an interesting guy. He wasn't this or that (either/or as Heather Lelache calls him). So, when trying to distract myself from the above, I couldn't look to the main character for any help. If I revisit this, I will try to focus more on the philosophical element of the book, which was a more important part of the story, but I just couldn't focus on it due to my own personal hang-ups.