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Indeed, it is likely that the analysand uses differing forms of free association: from thinking as Freud saw it, according to the logic of sequences, to thinking as Klein saw it, according to the logic of projection. Thus, in the same session a patient might suspend the sequential way of thinking in order to think through projection; equally, the analyst, for differing reasons, might move from listening in the Freudian manner to listening in the object relational manner. (Bollas, 2002:22) Free association is a form of thinking, manifesting the unconscious, in a variety of forms: the logic of sequence; the logic of projection; the theatre of parts of the self talking to one another and to parental objects; or the movement of character. (p:33) The patient in talking freely does not know what he is talking about, which allows the patient to discover that the unconscious talks through the self’s consciousness (p:34). Based on Freud’s idea that the unconscious is able to develop, Bollas can say that ‘asking for free associations […] the analyst nor only increases the network of knowledge but also, simultaneously, enhances the patient’s unconscious reach” (p:39-40). He looks closely at the words patients use in the sessions, saying that any word may have many possible meanings. To the question, what would it mean to seek one’s own truth? Bollas replies: “… seeking to re-present unconscious conflicts in order that the representative process in itself […] might begin to undertake the task of self-liberation. The pleasure of representation finds another pleasure: the pleasure of self-discovery, and of being understood” (p:62). Free association “produces further ‘spoken objects’ over time establishing what he calls a ‘meshwork’ for the Freudian Pair.” For him “the efficacious outcome of a psychoanalysis may well be, […] the deeply meaningful experience one finds in conveying one’s self to another…” (66). The patient’s free association and analyst’s floating evenly attention are the fundamental base. IV. B. EUROPEAN FRENCH PSYCHOANALYTIC TRADITION This has an approach to the Fundamental methodology of ‘free association’ that has led to replace the expression ‘free association’ with 'associativity', particularly, under the influence of Jean Laplanche and his precise translation of Freud’s German Einfall as "idée incidente". Three contributions can be highlighted from the French work on associativity. These contributions stem from the emphasis on an approach that privileges the analysis of the psychic process over that of the content. In 2016, Jean-Luc Donnet proposed a comprehensive view of the metapsychology of the method in which he differentiated between the procedure and the fundamental rule. The procedure concerns a 'focal' use of the method first used by Freud, whereas the fundamental rule that Freud enunciated in 1907 concerns the associative chain that is articulated from session to session throughout the treatment. This chain makes sense as a function of the specific transference moments that develop within it. If in the course of the treatment, the focal process and the fundamental rule (associativity of associativity) intertwine, but it is the overall process of the associative chains that is decisive for psychoanalytic practice.
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