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b) Analyst’s interventions . As seen above in writings of Paul Grey (1982) and Anton Kris (1982), the analyst’s intervention can elucidate an obstacle or resistance during the course of free association, and to restore and expand psychic continuity. Interpretation helps the patients to understand their psychic life in order to acquire insight and progress in the analytic process. The first aim of the method of free association is to increase the patient's relative freedom from unconscious obstacles…” (Kris 1982, p. 212). Kris further specifies, “I see the aims of my interventions from the perspective of their influence on associative continuity and freedom of association, rather than from the narrower angle of their ultimate effect on understanding or insight” (Ditto, p: 213). Furthermore, “The analyst's interventions, especially the interpretation of transference or other resistances, facilitate free association by increasing the patient's acceptance of previously threatening aspects of his mental life.” (Auchincloss and Samberg 2012, p. 89) Moreover, it is important to take into account that the way the analyst listens to the patient’s communications will affect the impact of his interventions: “listening to what is being said; to how it is being said, when and in what context it is being said; to what is not said, but deliberately or unwittingly omitted; and finally, to the absence of communication—listening to silence.” (Lowenstein 1963, p. 459). Further amplifying the facilitating role of analyst’s intervention with the regard to promoting free association, Rudolph Loewenstein writes: “Part of the analyst's work thus chiefly serves to maintain free association, to overcome the patient's resistances against the fundamental rule. (Ditto, p.464). Detailed description of the work of both Loewenstein, Grey and Kris is above in the North American section. * Overall, contemporary psychoanalytic schools that view psychic determinism as a key feature of mental life, free association remains a crucial part of the clinical method. The goals of free association are now seen in terms of the understanding of patients' transferences and character defences as manifested in their struggles with the task of free association, all within the context of the analytic situation. (Auchincloss and Samberg 2012). Psychoanalysts differ in their approaches to free association. Some analysts, who utilize the technique of close process attention, focus on the moment-to-moment shifts in associations (process), inviting patients to reflect on that experience, thereby giving the patient's self- reflection a central role (Gray 1973, 1982; Kris 1982, Busch 2011). Others listen for the unconscious themes (content) underlying a sequence of associations.’ (Loewenstein 1963; Arlow 1979a, b; Lothane 2018). Still others (Joseph 1985), integrate both approaches, focusing on the changes from one moment to the next and the unconscious themes underlying a sequence of associations, which is more in line with optimal contemporary clinical analytic practice across the board, as today it is a matter of relative focus rather than exclusive focus, taking into account many other specific factors (Blum 2016, 2019).
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