The method of free association has been widely used in psychology for quite some time. Its author is one of the most famous and scandalous psychoanalysts in the history of Sigmund Freud. It was he who proposed this method and used it throughout his career, passed it on to his students and included it in the so-called psychoanalysis, thanks to which he gained his fame. If you want to know more about the free association method, what it is and what it is used for, then this article is for you.
Sigmund Freud
If we talk about the method of free association, it is necessary to mention the one who introduced this method, namely Sigmund Freud. He lived and worked in the second half of the nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century. He was born in the Austrian Empire in the city of Freiberg, which at the moment is territorially related to the Czech Republic. He made a huge contribution to psychology, and his works are still used and appreciated, studied at universities and applied in practice, although not as actively as before. He founded the three-component structure of the psyche, introducing the concepts of "I", "it" and "superego". It was Freud who told the world about the psychosexual phases of human development, he described the protective mechanisms of the human psyche and much more, which resulted in a full-fledged psychological and psychiatric direction, which was called "Freudianism." And it is within the framework of Freudianism that there is the so-called psychoanalysis, which shocked the world of psychology and psychiatry in its time. Its key component is the method of free association, so you cannot talk about it without telling directly about psychoanalysis in general.
What is psychoanalysis?
So, what is the place of the method of free association in psychoanalysis? Freud based his activities precisely on this method. Therefore, we can safely say that it is fundamental to psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis is a branch of psychology founded by Sigmund Freud. He believed that every person has a psyche divided into conscious and unconscious. And psychoanalysis, unlike all other areas, was focused on working with the unconscious. This meant that studying the patient's situation, helping him, and treating him were carried out using not the most traditional methods, which even included the interpretation of dreams. Over time, of course, these methods became generally accepted, and the method of free association, examples of which will be discussed later, generally became one of the leading ones in psychology and psychiatry.
What is this method?
The method of free association in psychoanalysis, as you already understood, occupies a leading place and plays a crucial role. But what is he like? As mentioned earlier, Freud's psychoanalysis is aimed at the unconscious in the human psyche, and it is on this basis that this method works. Its essence lies in the fact that the psychoanalyst does not try to work with rational thoughts and ideas of the patient, he tries to get to the very depths, to the point that the human consciousness is trying to withhold from everyone around him and even from himself. But how exactly does it work? How to get to that innermost place in the human psyche? The method of free verbal associations is an ideal tool that allows you to get exactly what a psychoanalyst needs.
How is this method performed?
So, the essence of the method is that the psychoanalyst allows his patient to say absolutely everything that comes to his mind. He does not ask leading questions and does not try to learn something specific. He does not ask to restrain any emotions - the patient can and should tell everything that comes to his mind, even the most indecent and vulgar things. The work of a psychoanalyst is to listen to the patient, write down everything that flows out of the patient’s mouth in the stream of consciousness, and then justify the name of his profession, that is, analyze the information received. At first glance, this may seem a little absurd - what can be learned from a verbal flow that is not limited by anything? However, in reality, everything is not as simple as it might seem. Freud would not have become so famous if it were an ordinary stream of consciousness, and not something more.
Work with the unconscious
So what is the secret that makes the free association method so popular and effective? The interpretation of the information received from the patient is not a search for a grain of common sense in a stream of delirium, as it seems to many. In fact, Sigmund Freud believed that each person has a division of the psyche into conscious and unconscious, and until that time psychoanalysts turned only to the conscious. This means that they asked their patients logical questions, to which they consciously gave logical answers. However, at the same time, consciousness did not allow the deepest problems to come out - no one consciously wanted to admit to them, and often could not, because they did not suspect their existence, since consciousness reliably protected them. What is the difference between the free association method? The thing is that this method removed all the limitations of consciousness - the patient was forbidden to think about what he was saying, to try to weigh words, to filter ideas. He had to say absolutely everything that came to his mind. It was due to this that the path to the most hidden problems in the depths of the subconscious that the patient did not want or could not even tell his psychoanalyst when he was asked directly or indirectly, that is, turning to his conscious, and not unconscious, was made.
Not free associations
Despite the fact that this method is called that way, Freud himself did not consider associations specifically “free”. He was of the opinion that they are all controlled by the subconscious process. And thanks to this method, the patient’s consciousness can no longer restrain everything that was hidden in its depths. It skips this information, since often it does not go in direct, but in symbolic form - it is here that an experienced psychoanalyst comes into play, who must decipher the received symbols.
Interpretation
Interpretation is an equally important tool of psychoanalysis than free association. Without it, this method will not work, since the psychoanalyst will simply remain with a stream of consciousness recorded on paper. Interpretation is a psychoanalysis process by which verbal associations are deciphered and take on the form of the essence of the problem, which the patient unconsciously tried to convey. And just then it is already possible to work on its solution. As you can see, Freud’s psychoanalysis turned out to be a real breakthrough in psychology and psychiatry, allowing people to get to the most secret problems that they could not express consciously. Only with the help of the unconscious was it possible to get to the point, and that is why Freud's psychoanalysis became so popular and entered into all textbooks on psychology, psychoanalysis, and even psycholinguistics.
Method Example
So, a session of psychoanalysis using the method of free association occurs as follows: the patient lies on the couch, and the psychoanalyst sits on a chair near his head. In most cases, the patient cannot see the psychoanalyst or sees only a small part of it. This is done so that nothing distracts him from a kind of rendezvous with the unconscious. The psychoanalyst does not ask direct questions, as in a standard session - he only helps the patient plunge into the stream of the unconscious in order to get to the core of the problem, which is hidden due to the protective mechanism of consciousness. As a result, the psychoanalyst receives information that most often comes not in the form of direct text, but symbolically. Then, as a professional in psychoanalysis, he uses his skills to read the essence of the problem in the images and help the patient solve it.
Other types of free association method
However, not only Freud used this method, other scientists also applied it in their practice. One of the most famous among them was Carl Gustav Jung. He also had his own psychoanalysis - now it is even customary to divide psychoanalysis into Freudian and Jungian. However, Jung used the method of free associations a little differently - he placed more emphasis on the fact that associations are free, while Freud himself recognized their non-freedom, subordination to the general process, and he concentrated directly on associations. But both of these approaches were incredibly successful and eventually became world famous.