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Maria Ponsi (2012), drawing on the conceptual framework of contemporary psychoanalysis, holds that, although the link with the original theoretical apparatus is loosened or dissolved, free associations retain a crucial role in the psychoanalytic treatment. In a new, transformed conceptual context, the use of the term 'associative thought', besides being not bound to specific theoretical presuppositions, is aimed at highlighting a special type of mental activity, which naturally and spontaneously occurs in daily life and which, once placed in the analytical situation, acquires the specific function of exploring the internal word. With a creative use of ‘the potential space’ (Winnicott 1968a), the associative way of thinking is fostered by the analytic situation, where two aspects of ego functioning (Sterba 1934) come into play: on the one hand the mode of thinking within oneself, normally experienced when the mind aimlessly wanders here and there as in daydreaming (‘experiencing ego’); and on the other an activity of self-observation and verbalization (‘observing ego’). Specifically, Ponsi draws on Sterba’s suggestion that the analyst effects a ‘therapeutic dissociation’ (p. 120) between an observing and an experiencing aspect of ego. Sterba, in turn, draws on Freud’s (1933) statement that “The ego can take itself as object; it can treat itself like any other object, observe itself, criticize itself, do Heaven knows what besides with itself. In such a case, one part of the ego stands over against the other. The ego can, then, be split; it becomes dissociated during many of its functions, at any rate in passing. The parts can later on join up again.” (p. 80).
IV. D. CLINICAL PROCESS AND FREE ASSOCIATION IV. Da. Factors Limiting Free Association
In practice, the contradictory nature of free association makes it impossible to fulfil completely, but its greater or lesser achievement depends on factors that limit its use and others that facilitate it. In terms of limiting factors, basically two can be identified: Overall patient’s pathology and personality organization; and specifically, harsh and hyper-critical superego. Specific factors are outlined below: a) Factors due to the patient’s pathology . There is no doubt that free association and psychopathology are in a proportionally inverse relationship: the greater the pathology the lesser the capacity for association. Therefore, if we perceive free association from this perspective, its development within the psychoanalytic process will depend on the resolution of the hindering pathology. Consequently, free association could be regarded as one of the indicators of the progression of the analytic process, or, in other words, the internal freedom of the patient. Influential in Europe, North American Otto Kernberg ’s (2015a) description of particular distortions in the process of free association characteristic of patients with narcissistic personality disorders, commonly encountered in the early and middle phases of their analytic treatment, are of particular relevance.
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