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years, Roussillon (1991, 1999a) has emphasized the different forms of transference configuration; in particular, he had studied intersubjective aspects of the passive-to-active reversal mechanisms (Freud, A. 1936). In Roussillon’s complicated theoretical derivation, such a 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) imply splitting of the transference, with an implication of an effect on the countertransference, whilst the analyst has the impression of a breakdown, strangeness or rupture of the patient's associativity. Such a countertransferential impression may often be a mark of the entry into the scene of other forms of language and associativity (2009 a,b; 2013). It should be noted that Roussillon's ideas coincide with many authors of contemporary psychoanalysis, mainly due to their work with children and with patients with 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).
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