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considered to be the central element of transference (Lagache 1952) one must add other organizing processes of the “transference constellation” (Freud 1937) such as reversal (when the subject speaks from the point of view of the object and the analyst consequently assumes the position previously occupied by the subject). These forms of splitting of the transference have an effect on the countertransference and give the analyst the impression of a breakdown, strangeness or rupture of the patient's associativity, whereas they are often simply the entry into the scene of other forms of language and associativity. It should be noted that Roussillon's ideas coincide with many authors of contemporary psychoanalysis, mainly due to their work with children and severe pathologies. This work has highlighted the need to consider that patients' communication goes beyond verbal language. Consequently, the concept of free association, although rooted in verbal language, is observed in conjunction with the non-verbal elements that accompany it. This is exemplified by Kleinian analysts, where the concept of projective identification suggests that the analyst becomes acquainted with a part of the patient's mental life not only through verbal communication, but through everything that accompanies it. Further relevant references include O'Shaughnessy's (1983) paper on 'Beyond the words,' and Joseph's work (1985) on 'total transference'. IV. C. FREE ASSOCIATION IN ITALIAN PSYCHOANALYSIS Among the Italian analysts who have studied Free Association, the following can be highlighted. Savo Spacal (1990) studied how the free association method evolved from its origins and identified a peculiar introspective mode that has characterised it since its inception. The method of free association has declined because the investigative function of the analytic treatment, and in particular the self-investigative attitude, has lost its value compared to Freud, who always attached great importance to it. Interpretation and analyst's attitude have become prominent elements in later psychoanalytic models, with the consequence of depriving the introspective subject of the privileged position Freud had given him. Antonino Ferro (2002), drawing on a model of mind based on Bion’s thought, reformulates free associations in terms of reverie: free associations are narrative derivatives of waking dream thought and reveries as a way of direct access to the images of such dream thought. "Free associations can be considered as the most appropriate way to get in touch with the waking dream thought – a type of thought always operating inside each mind: on the patient's side it is the way of allowing ‘the narrative derivatives’ [...] to have the lowest possible degree of deformation, on the analyst's side the way of tuning in to the narrative derivatives of his waking dream thought" (Ferro, 2002, 375). Eugenio Gaburri ( 2002), considers the patient's ability to free associate to be related to that of the analyst, so that free associations and free floating attention form "a functional unity that constitutes a container, a common field for the partners at work" (Gaburri, 2002, p.361;
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