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become more complex, nuanced, and individually calibrated. Especially relevant are developmental and dynamic considerations of the patient’s personality organization, particularly the ego capacities and object relations, in relation to various dimensions of the psychoanalytic situation, such as transference-countertransference field and representational- interpretive processes, as they may be variously conceptualized within different schools of thought. Depending on the particular analyst and patient, such considerations may result in preserving free association as the core element of the psychoanalytic situation, or implementing conceptual and technical modifications. These may include the moderate or minimal use of free associations, including recasting free associations in the intersubjective context or temporary suspension of free associative processes (to firm up the distinction between reality and fantasy, to fortify trust, safety and exploration of the object relationship). Other modifications may include focus on the processes rather than the contents of free associations, as well as broadening of the subject matter of the free associations to encourage the analysands to put into words bodily sensations, images, dreams, memories, and references to the analyst. This follows a long-standing trend of ‘widening the range’ of associative material to access the earliest developmental preverbal experiences of emotional and relational significance, to increase clinical understanding of ‘pre-object relations’, and to maximize restoration of psychic continuity. An important reciprocal free associative activity on the part of the analyst, conceptualized variably as free-floating attention within the position of the analytic neutrality, an analytic instrument, or as a transformative alpha function to be internalized and creatively appropriated by the patient, has been acknowledged as a significant counter-part of the overall free associative process of the patient. With some exceptions, many proponents of various theoretical orientations within North American psychoanalysis, navigating the tension between tradition and innovation, view overriding continuous value in talking as freely as possible while developing curiosity and capacity for self-observation and reflection. It can provide a methodological structure for the analyst to maintain a balance between participation and observation, and it can enable patients to unite the task of exploring their inner world, ‘the workings of their mind’, with the experience and exploration of their multidimensional transformative interpersonal relation to the analyst. In Europe, contemporary psychoanalysis likewise still considers free association as part of the fundamental psychoanalytic procedure. However, a greater understanding of the primitive levels of the mind has led to a broadening of the content of free association, beyond words. It has also been stressed that free association is nothing more than a natural mental activity in everyday life, which, placed in the analytic framework, allows the inner world to be explored.
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