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Free association

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Free association is a psychotherapeutic technique used in psychoanalysis, first developed by Sigmund Freud.


Suggested influences in the development of this technique include Husserl's version of epoche[1] and the work of Sir Francis Galton. Free association also shares some features with the idea of stream of consciousness, employed by writers such as Virginia Woolf and Marcel Proust. Freud developed the technique as an alternative to hypnosis, both because of its perceived fallibility and because he found that patients could recover and comprehend crucial memories while fully conscious. However, Freud found that despite a subject's effort to remember, a certain resistance kept him or her from the most painful and important memories. He eventually came to the view that certain items were completely repressed, and off-limits, to the conscious realm of the mind.

Freudian approachEdit


The use of free association was intended to help discover notions that a patient had developed, initially, at a subconscious level, including:

  • Projection - projecting internal feelings or motives as being ascribed, instead, to other things or people;

The mental conflicts were analyzed from the viewpoint that the patients, initially, did not understand how such feelings were occurring at a subconscious level, hidden inside their minds. For example, some might not realize they were highly attracted to people reminiscent of childhood friends or relatives, or they were accusing others of doing, or thinking, what they secretly wished they themselves could have done. In addition, some people who think "Freud was wrong" might be experiencing resistance to accepting their subconscious motives, such as not accepting that their "soul mate" closely resembles someone else from their childhood.

See also Edit


  1. Peter Koestenbaum, Introductory essay to The Paris Lectures by Husserl, 1998

External linksEdit


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