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Oct 7, 2021 · Free association is a psychoanalytic technique that aims to access the unconscious mind by expressing whatever thoughts, words, or images come to mind. Learn about its history, therapeutic uses, how to do it, and its effectiveness.
- Trauma
The American Psychological Association strongly recommends...
- Trauma
Free association is a technique in psychoanalysis that involves expressing the content of consciousness without censorship. It is used to access unconscious processes, such as transference, projection, and resistance, and to explore the logic of association.
- Overview
- Where Did the Concept of Free Association Come From?
- How Do You Use Free Association in Therapy?
- This Is Why Free Association Can Be So Helpful in a Therapy Session
- What Our Experts Had to Say About Free Association (Plus Examples)
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If you’re looking to go a little deeper in therapy—or if you simply want to learn a bit more about a popular therapy technique—you might want to try free association (aka the therapist-approved version of word vomit).
Free association is pretty much just what it sounds like. It’s a technique where you let yourself spill whatever thoughts that pop into your head, without censoring yourself. No worries, though. It’s done in the safe space of your therapist’s office, and you’ll be given support and guidance along the way.
At a Glance
Free association is a technique that was popularized by Sigmund Freud, with the idea that if people talk without censoring themselves, they will uncover meaningful (and often repressed) thoughts, feelings, and memories. The technique is basically the foundation of psychoanalysis and is still used today in modern psychoanalysis and other forms of therapy.Free association can help you be your most authentic and unapologetic self with your therapist.
How to Choose the Best Type of Therapy For You
Free association is most commonly associated with Sigmund Freud, but it emerged as a concept before Freud, during the 18th century in the work of Franz-Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician often credited with coming up with the concept of hypnosis. By the time Freud was working with the idea of free association, he was considering it as a means to h...
So what exactly is free association? Kalley Hartman, LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist at Ocean Recovery, describes it as when your therapist encourages you to “freely share thoughts, words, and anything else that comes to mind, irrespective of how random or disconnected these thoughts may seem.”
But while free association may seem pretty random in nature, it actually has a clear purpose. “The process aims to uncover hidden thoughts and feelings that might be causing distress, helping the therapist and patient understand unconscious patterns,” Hartman describes.
It Can Help You Make Connections Between Your Thoughts and Behaviors
When done with intention and therapist support, free association can help you discover connections between various thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors you experience, says Good. “It surprises many people, but when we pull back the veil on their life there is typically an intricate web of connected negative beliefs and ingrained neural pathways leading to how they feel, think, and behave on a daily basis,” Good says.
It Can Build Trust Between You and Your Therapist
Trust is super important in therapy. Without it, it'll be hard and almost impossible to open up. With that said, using free association in therapy not only encourages your own self-exploration but can deepen the work you are doing in therapy, leading to important insights. As such, it helps “foster an open dialogue between the therapist and the patient,” Good explains. In turn, this can help deepen the therapeutic relationship, she says, increasing trust between you and your therapist.
It Helps You Tune Out the All of That Mental Chatter in Your Brain
According to a 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychology, one of the purposes of free association is to tune out the environment around you and go deeper inside your unconsciousness. The researchers say that free association allows for you to get in touch with your “intrapsychic reality,” which refers to your psyche.
Re-Evaluating Childhood Memories
Good says that she uses free association all the time as part of her work as an EMDR therapist. “Basically my entire caseload would be considered case studies,” she says. “I will say that people are very surprised when they notice that something they thought only affected them in the present moment goes back to childhood or earlier life.” One example would be a person who's working on processing their feelings toward their abusive parent, Good says. Through free association, they realize that they have negative feelings about the parent they thought was the “good parent”—the parent who enabled the abusive behavior.
Unresolved Grief
Hartman shared the case of a patient who was dealing with unresolved grief. “Through free association, they began to talk about seemingly unrelated topics like gardens, which eventually led to memories of gardening with a deceased loved one,” she described. “This helped the patient realize their unresolved feelings of loss and begin the healing process.”
What This Means For You
Free association is a concept that many of us find helpful in our therapy journeys. When you tell your inner-censor to take a hike, you’ll be surprised by what thoughts and feelings come to the surface. “Engaging in free association requires an open mind and a willingness to share your thoughts freely,” Hartman says. “It’s important to remember that there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ thoughts in this process,” she assures. Additionally, some of us worry about being judged based on what thoughts or fears come out of us when we free associate. Fortunately, your therapist can help foster a space without judgment so that you can show up as your most real self. The 11 Best Online Therapy Companies Offering Grief Counseling in 2024 Why Vulnerability in Relationships Is So Important By Wendy Wisner Wendy Wisner is a health and parenting writer, lactation consultant (IBCLC), and mom to two awesome sons.
Sep 13, 2024 · Discover how Freud’s psychoanalysis therapy technique, free association, can free your mind and uncover unconscious thoughts, improving mental health.
Sep 18, 2012 · Learn about free association, a psychoanalytic technique that involves sharing random thoughts and associations. Find out how it works, who developed it, and what are its criticisms.
Jan 24, 2024 · Learn about psychoanalysis, a therapeutic approach and theory founded by Sigmund Freud that explores the unconscious mind and repressed feelings. Discover how free association, dream analysis, and other techniques are used to uncover and interpret the patient's conflicts and defenses.
Free association is a method of exploring the unconscious mind by saying whatever comes to mind without censoring or editing. It was developed by Sigmund Freud and used by Carl Jung in psychoanalysis.
