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narcissistic disorders of the Self (Kohut 1977) and self-image dating back to early in life (Tonkin & Fine, 1985; Mahler et al., 1975). (See also separate entries SELF and INTERSUBJECTIVITY) Another ego function that is related to the primary process, implicated in free association, and in need of consideration is the capacity for ‘ controlled regression’ (‘unintegration’ without disintegration). Leo Bellak (1989), building on his and Ernst Kris’ earlier work (Bellak 1961, E. Kris (1936, 1943, 1944), described the concept of ‘adaptive regression in the service of the ego (ARISE). By this, he meant internal flexibility in allowing one’s primary process into consciousness in order to enjoy play, to communicate with a small child, to tell (and comprehend) a joke, to conduct analysis (D. Marcus, 1997), and to create (and appreciate) art or novel solutions in any field. (Salvador Dali, for example, was able to utilize his massive primary process breakthroughs using his capacity to draw, together with a novel arrangement of spatial relationships, to create unusual shapes and figures portraying his condensed, symbolized conflicts on canvas.) As E. Kris before him, Bellak (1961) sees a parallel between the psychoanalytic and creative process, each characterized by two phases that intermingle or succeed the other: Phase I is ‘The Relaxation of Ego Control’. This corresponds to the artist’s inspirational phase (Kris 1944), and is characterized by the experience of passivity, contemplation, and a loosening of temporal and spatial frames., In addition, analysands may be able to bring into consciousness visual scenes and other sensorial aspects of memories and fantasies ‘rising into the mind’s eye’, in the gradual loosening of syntax. In this phase, the free associations approximate the psychic mechanism of dreams. Bellak compared his Phase II of ‘Adaptive and Integrative-Synthetic Ego functioning’ to ‘Active Elaboration’ in art (Kris 1944). There occurs “an increase of adaptive and synthetic ego functioning. As in the artistically creative process, so in associating, the temporarily decreased boundaries permit fusion of new Gestalten…insight emerges …as a result of oscillation from regression of certain ego functions to an increase in others” (Bellak 1961, p.14). The contemporary Post-Freudian Structural theory (Contemporary Ego psychology and Modern Conflict Theory) recognizes the complexities and fine lines between accessing primary process via free association for understanding unconscious conflict (necessary for analytic work) and becoming overwhelmed by primary process at the expense of reality testing (a psychotic spectrum). Under favorable circumstances, one of the most important consequences of the method of free associations is that it inevitably brings forth, deepens, and contributes to a resolution of symbolic repetitions in transference (Freud, 1914, Strachey 1969, Brenner 2006, Blum 2016).
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