“NOBODY SAID IT WAS A CINCH!”
To illustrate the technique of free association, which is the basic technique of Psychoanalysis, I will transcribe below the session that took place on October 12, 1924 in the office of Edward Scripture, charter member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society. Scripture has just received a new patient in his consulting room. After the appropriate greetings , each one occupies its respective place in the psychoanalytic stage. Scripture gives the patient instructions on how to proceed with the technique of free association of ideas . It is, he says, a kind of long chain that leads to the past and in which he, Scripture, is going to string the first link: “ I will mention a word, and immediately you will respond with another word with which you relate it. Do you understand?” Patient: Yes Doctor: If I mention the word "vacation", what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? Patient: An aircraft carrier Doctor: Interesting. Have you spent a vacation on an aircraft carr...