Free Association (psychology)
Free association is a technique used in psychoanalysis (and also in psychodynamic theory) which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud out of the hypnotic method of his mentor and coworker, Josef Breuer.
'The importance of free association is that the patients spoke for themselves, rather than repeating the ideas of the analyst; they work through their own material, rather than parroting another's suggestions'. James Strachey considered free association as 'the first instrument for the scientific examination of the human mind'.
Read more about Free Association (psychology): Origins, Characteristics, Freudian Approach, Further Developments, Criticism, Coda
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or association:
“It is mediocrity which makes laws and sets mantraps and spring-guns in the realm of free song, saying thus far shalt thou go and no further.”
—James Russell Lowell (181991)
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
—Thomas Jefferson (17431826)