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further exploration of the dynamics of resistance, starting with “Studies on Hysteria” (Freud 1893a,b); and, 2. Through the analysis of his dreams . Both lines of development demonstrated the determinate order of the unconscious and the meaningfulness of ostensibly irrational dreams and neurotic symptoms Clinically, in “Studies on Hysteria” (Freud [with Breuer] 1893-1895), free association in its rudimentary forms emerged from pre-analytic methods of investigation of the unconscious. First, a hypnotic method was modified by patients being encouraged to speak freely about memories, rather than just being given post-hypnotic suggestions. Second, a patient’s concentration on a given idea, searching for a pathogenic factor, gave way to an emphasis on the patients’ spontaneous self-expression. Patients themselves played a significant role in the gradual shift towards freedom of associations without a set starting point. In “The Psychotherapy of Hysteria” section of “Studies on Hysteria”, Freud (1893b) explains the transitional moment when he gives up hypnosis, while being able to listen to his patients and thus unveiled the method of free association. He writes: “The hysterical patient's ‘not knowing’ was in fact a ‘not wanting to know’ […] The task of the therapist, therefore, lies in overcoming by his psychical work this resistance to association. He does this in the first place by ‘insisting’ , by making use of psychical compulsion la to direct the patients’ attention to the ideational traces of which he is in search [… then] I make use in the first instance of a small technical device […] I shall apply pressure to his forehead , and I assure him that, all the time the pressure lasts, he will see before him a recollection in the form of a picture or will have it in his thoughts in the form of an idea occurring to him. […] . I am rather of opinion that the advantage of the procedure lies in the fact that by means of it I dissociate the patient's attention from his conscious searching and reflecting” (1893b, pp. 269-270; Italics added). Having used free associations during his self-analysis between 1895-1899, Freud (1900) had combined the notion of dynamic unconscious processes with free association to create an original, integrated, and operational method of psychoanalytic treatment and research . In 1912–1915 and later writings, he recommended free association as the fundamental procedure and process of psychoanalytic therapy. It is at this point that free association on the part of the patient, complemented by the analyst’s freely hovering attention as part of the position of neutrality and abstinence, became the structuring pillar and ‘fundamental rule’ of the analytic setting. As the fundamental methodology of psychoanalytic inquiry, free association contributed greatly to not only the formulations of dynamic unconscious, psychic determinism, continuity, and meaning, but also the progression of Freud’s understanding of the forces at play in psychic conflict. (See separate entries THE UNCONSCIOUS and CONFLICT) Conversely, every advancement of theory led to an expansion of the use of free association. The gradual formulation of free association contributed to the initial discovery of resistance. With free association spearheading Freud’s growing awareness of unconscious
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