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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

The structure of visual and kinaesthetic imagery: a free association study.

A free association technique was used to investigate the semantic structure of three forms of encoding: verbal, visual imagery, and kinaesthetic imagery. Kinaesthetic imagery involves imagined bodily identification with the stimuli (animal names) and is included because of its possible involvement in creativity, and in view of the importance of enactive representation in cognitive development. The analysis of evoked associations in terms of the propositional relations they bear to the stimuli, shows that the actor-action-object framework is particularly important in kinaesthetic imagery, and the whole-part structure in visual imagery. Verbal representation gives rise to various abstract and phonemically based association types. The relevance of these findings to creativity and to the concept of semantic memory is discussed.

Association↗
PubMed1990

Free association and changing models of mind.

The method of free association, like most major psychoanalytic concepts, was developed in and has been conceptually tied to a one-person, intrapsychic, drive psychology. Psychoanalysts who have retained the classical, drive-structure metapsychology have continued to emphasize the free association method, while those who have shifted to a relational, two-person, interactional or interpersonal point of view have often minimized or abandoned the free association method. This article explores this unfortunate dichotomy and examines the ways in which the free association method, stripped of its unnecessary tie to drive theory and reconceptualized within the context of a two-person psychology, remains a valuable clinical method. Free association, as a method, can be useful to psychoanalysts of all theoretical orientations as a reminder of Freud's most important discoveries, that is, of unconscious mental life, psychic determinism, psychic continuity, and meaning, as well as of the value and priority of careful, restrained, and disciplined listening to patients and of taking our lead from them. The method of free association, with the corresponding assumption of the analyst's evenly hovering attention, provides a fundamental context within which our personalities and theoretical biases, instead of being disruptions or impositions, become active and analyzable aspects of the analytic process.

Countertransference↗
PubMed1989

Norms for free associations and five types of constrained associations.

Normative data on verbal free associations and constrained associations of five types (opposites, superordinates, examples of categories, coordinates, and properties) were collected from 72 men and 72 women (mean age, 19.2 yr.). A list of the different responses given by subjects for each of 360 stimuli and the frequency of each response is available.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Free association as a method of self-observation in relation to other methodological principles of psychoanalysis.

The method of free association, especially in its self-observative aspect, may be seen as a useful criterion for differentiating among various clinical approaches to psychoanalysis, not only as they evolved in the course of its history but also as they are being practiced today. It is suggested that it may be of some relevance to view the existing variants of clinical psychoanalysis as being based upon differing emphases on one or another of the basic operational concepts, such as free association, interpretation, and the mental disposition of the analyst.

Free Association↗
PubMed1975

Free association and repression-sensitization.

It was predicted that Subjects' scores on Byrne's Repression-Sensitization (R-S) Scale would be related to free associative style. When administered the R-S Scale, Subjects at the high and low extremes then took part in a free association task. Repressers manifested a prevalence of "avoidant" and sensitizers a prevalence of "approach" associations. However, this was true only of male Subjects.

Aggression↗
PubMed1986

Age differences in the commonality of free associations.

Commonality of associative response provides an index of the organization of semantic memory. The present study investigated age differences in semantic organization by comparing commonality of associative response. Thirty young (M = 20 yrs) and 30 old (M = 72 yrs) adults gave free associations to single stimulus words of high or low linguistic frequency. Controlling statistically for education and verbal skills, it was determined that there were no age differences in the commonality or variability of associates. Results are discussed in reference to developmental trends in the organization of semantic memory.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

Operational definition and measurement of dynamics shown in the stream of free associations.

The study of sequences in the stream of consciousness during patient free association and self observation has long been held by psychoanalysts to be a major part of successful psychotherapy. Yet there have been essentially no methods for rigorously quantifying and studying the dynamic relations implied by the sequencing of patient verbalizations. The present paper proposes that Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (Benjamin 1974) offers a means operationally to define and study dynamics as they are shown in the stream of consciousness from a productive patient hour. The method is demonstrated on a woman who became suicidal following maternal phone calls even though the conversations were seemingly "nice." SASB codes were made by nonclinicians, and the dynamics emerged from the computer analyses of the codes. The SASB-based ability objectively to define dynamics in the stream of consciousness offers opportunities reliably to identify different dynamics in different cases and relate them to different possible therapeutic interventions and outcomes.

Female↗
PubMed1990

The analyst's stance and the method of free association.

The concept of the analyst's stance is employed to organize a number of ideas about psychoanalytic work, past and present, especially from the viewpoint of the method of free association. Beginning with an emphasis on the intrinsic uncertainties and paradoxes of the analytic process, the author reviews the importance of words, the aim of mastering resistances (i.e., promoting freedom of association), and functional neutrality on the analyst's part. The problem of anonymity is considered from a number of angles. Two traditions of transference are described, deriving from Freud's overlapping early formulations. The distinction between old and new determinants in the two kinds of transference is useful and important in the analyst's stance. Attitudes toward insight, resistance, and conflict resolution are considered from the perspective of the distinction between divergent and convergent conflicts, with special emphasis on the role of punitive, unconscious self-criticism.

Free Association↗
PubMed1991

On the dynamic organization of memory. A mathematical model of associative free recall.

The interaction of memory structures and retrieval dynamics is discussed. A mathematical model for associative free recall is presented to support the view that the organization of simple processing units plays an important role in the retrieval of memory traces. Computer simulations show that "flexibility" and "fidelity" of the dynamics strongly depend on the network structure, the amplification and decay parameters, and the noise term.

Association Learning↗
PubMed1992

On the psychophysiology of dreaming: a sensory image--free association hypothesis of the dream process.

A psychophysiological hypothesis of the dream process during REM sleep called "a sensory image-free association hypothesis" is proposed. It is assumed that a state with a sustained EEG pattern of drowsiness (non-REM stage-1) and muscle atonia produces a stream of disorganized and vague thinking as a background mentation during the REM sleep. The phasic excitation of the brain occurring concurrently with the burst of rapid eye movements (REMs) activates the hippocampal-neocortical memory system and draws out sensory images from the memory reservoir of the brain. The dreamer makes a freely organized association about the successive sensory images and makes up a dream story. This hypothesis is compatible not only with the recent neurophysiological findings but also with traditional psychological interpretation of the dream content.

Animals↗