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synthesis of their imaginal fragments that disclose unconscious meaning… The capacity for this is a test of the analyst's competence … an interpretation can be made when the symbolic interaction between analyst and analysand has reached a point at which the analyst entertains in his imagination persistent structures, the origin of which he imputes to the analysand's unconscious intentions” (pp. 312, 325). Related contribution of Christopher Bollas (1992), North American born British analyst, followed in detail in European section below, is relevant here. Bollas discussed the clinical utility of a judicious sharing of the psychoanalyst’s own free associative activity, which, in his view, may be more common than usually acknowledged. As per his recommendation, such disclosure should be selective, related to the patient’s material, when they form a “preconscious link to the unconscious latent thoughts” (p. 116) of the analysand, and need to be always followed up by the patient’s use of it. Following the above authors, Zvi Lothane (2010) argues for upholding the continuity and relevance of Freud's fundamental methodology and technique of free association. He especially highlights the similarity of the state of mind of the patient’s free association and the analyst’s free floating/evenly hovering attention, bringing up the reciprocal interactive dimension in the methodological and terminological extension of the Reciprocal Free Association concept (1984, 2007, 2010). He writes: “…the analyst's free association is an integral part of the analysand's free association, that the patient is never talking to a wall but to another, who follows and echoes and follows his thoughts at every turn of the road. Whether the analyst's free associations remain silent or are spoken, they nevertheless dovetail continuously with those of the analysand—two free associations are indispensable for one to unfold…” (Lothane 2007, p. 161).
IV. FURTHER EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT TOWARDS CONTEMPORARY THEORY AND CLINICAL USAGE IN EUROPE
While keeping up with the wide scope of North American concept development, ranging from Anton Kris's statement: "For me, the central point of psychoanalysis is the commitment to the method of free association" (Kris, 1982), to the contemporary revisitation by Zvi Lothane, of the question: “... is Freud’s working out of free association still relevant today” (Lothane, 2018, p.), European analysts forge their own regionally specific evolution of the concept within British Object Relations, French and Italian analytic traditions..
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