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“The extraordinary diversity of the psychical constellations concerned, the plasticity of all mental processes and the wealth of determining factors oppose any mechanization of the technique; and they bring it about that a course of action that is as a rule justified may at times prove ineffective, whilst one that is usually mistaken may once in a while lead to the desired end. These circumstances, however, do not prevent us from laying down a procedure for the physician which is effective on the average…” (Freud 1913a, p. 123). In 1912, Freud's 'fundamental rule' of psychoanalysis was implemented by asking patients to say what entered their minds (ideas, feelings, bodily sensations, dreams) as unsparingly as possible, i.e., without censorship. Between 1912 and 1915, in the series of Papers on Technique, Freud details the interaction between the associative process on the part of the patient, and the corresponding complementary process of listening and interpretation on the part of the analyst: these are the pillars that structure the psychoanalytic situation and the psychoanalytic process. The explanation of the free association to the patient at the beginning of the psychoanalytic process starts with the announcement to the patient of how he/she should communicate with the analyst in the course of the analysis; in the end it is how the communication between patient and analyst is going to be. In “On Beginning the Treatment, Freud (1913a) wrote: “The fundamental rule of psycho-analytic technique must be imparted …at the very beginning (ibid, 134). In this paper, the notable ‘train metaphor’ appeals to ‘somnolent’ state of consciousness and underscores the passive experience of the German term ‘Einfälle’ / Einfällt : “One more thing before you start. What you tell me must differ in one respect from an ordinary conversation. Ordinarily you rightly try to keep a connecting thread running through your remarks and you exclude any intrusive ideas that may occur to you and any side-issues, so as not to wander too far from the point. But in this case, you must proceed differently. You will notice that as you relate things various thoughts will occur to you which you would like to put aside on the ground of certain criticisms and objections. You will be tempted to say to yourself that this or that is i rrelevant here, or is quite unimportant, or nonsensical, so that there is no need to say it. You must never give in to these criticisms, but must say it in spite of them—indeed, you must say it precisely because you feel an aversion to doing so…So, say whatever goes through your mind. Act as though, for instance, you were a traveler sitting next to the window of a railway carriage and describing to someone inside the carriage the changing views which you see outside ’…” (Freud 1913a, pp. 134-135; italics added). The long footnote which follows exposes the paradoxical nature of the fundamental rule: “…there comes a time in every analysis when the patient disregards it.” (ibid, p. 135, n.1).
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