The method of free association was proposed by Sigmund Freud.
Free association is an idea that is used in the field of psychoanalysis based on a method proposed by Sigmund Freud .
According to Freud , the technique of psychoanalysis is based on the person who comes to therapy expressing all his thoughts, emotions, sensations and memories as they appear in his mind, without organization, structuring, selection or restriction. The patient must share with his psychoanalyst even that which seems to lack logic or importance or that is immoral.
Concept of free association
To know the concept at hand, it is important to discover the etymological origin of the two words that give it shape:
- Association derives from Latin and is the result of the sum of three components of said language: the prefix ad- , which can be translated as “towards” ; the noun socius , which is equivalent to “companion” ; and the suffix -cion , which indicates action and effect.
- Libre also comes from Latin, exactly from liber , which is equivalent to “free” .
The act and result of associating or associating is called association . The notion is also used to name the organization that brings together different individuals with the same objective and the group of associated people.
Free , for its part, is one or something that has the freedom to act or function: that is, it has no conditions or restraints.
Free association allows the content of the unconscious to be revealed.
Freud's perspective
Free associations reveal, according to Freud 's perspective, contents that are in the unconscious of the individual (who, for this reason, cannot access them). Unconscious representations, in this way, can reflect traumas or psychological disorders.
What free association does is avoid the subject's defensive barriers , eliminating resistance . Accessing these unconscious contents is the way to cure the patient .
Opposition to free association
There are those who have expressed themselves totally against the use of the tool of free association to treat patients on a psychoanalytic level. And they consider that it brings with it a series of disadvantages, among which they do not hesitate to emphasize the following:
- It can shape an atmosphere of ambiguity , which generates confusion.
- It can increase paranoid anxieties .
- It can cause dispersion in the patient.
Beyond psychoanalysis
Beyond psychoanalysis, free association is used in brainstorming and in the automatic writing technique promoted by the surrealists.
Within the business and marketing field, the use of the tool of free association is used to improve productivity, give cohesion to a team and get the best out of each of its members. It is a technique that exploits creativity through the chaotic association of words and ideas without any type of order or filter.
Free association as a corporation
The concept of free association can be used to refer to entities that arise from the voluntary union of the various members .
The Free Association of German Unions and the Free Association of Artists of Spain constitute two historical examples of this type of corporations.