The myths of free association and the potentials of the analytic relationship

Datos Bibliográficos

ID8970972
AutoresIrwin Z Hoffman (55 E. Washington Street, Suite 1217Chicago, IL 60602USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2006
Volumen87
Número1
Páginas43-61
Fecha de publicación2006-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1516/15bk-freh-nrk6-0mnp
PMID16635860
OpenAlexW4247073622
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas20
Referencias citadas28

The author challenges the traditional and still prevalent view of 'free association', arguing that it entails three forms of denial (also formulated in terms of corresponding myths): 1) denial of the patient's free agency; 2) denial of the patient's and the analyst's interpersonal influence; and 3) denial of the patient's share of responsibility for co-constructing the analytic relationship. That responsibility includes some degree of consideration of the analyst's needs. Sometimes, the patient's good judgment to that end may be reflected in what is automatically and mistakenly reduced to a form of 'resistance'. Attention to the patient's responsibility must be balanced against the effort to provide a uniquely safe environment for the patient's revealing of shame and anxiety-ridden feelings and attitudes. But the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis, ideally, includes the cultivation, through lived experience, of the dialectical interplay of self-expression, on the one hand, and caring relational engagement, on the other. Recognition of the patient's free agency does not preclude exploration of constraining structures laid down in the past. On the contrary, it deepens such exploration. At the same time, it opens the door to the possibility of explicit recognition, via challenge, criticism, or affirmation, of the patient's contributions to the analytic work

Action (physics · Agency (philosophy · Association (psychology · Criticism · Denial · Dialectic · Epistemology · Feeling · Free association (psychology · Free will · Interpersonal communication · Interpersonal relationship · Mythology · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Sense of agency · Shame · Theology · Therapeutic relationship · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Philosophy · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology · Transactional Analysis in Psychotherapy