Free Association Therapy
Free Association Therapy
The psychodynamic approach claims that childhood experiences have an impact on adult behaviour. Some experiences that occur in childhood are too traumatic to deal with so the memories of these events are repressed as the ego is too weak to cope with them. Later in life these repressions can resurface as abnormalities thus needing to seek therapy. One of the major treatments in psychoanalysis is free association. This treats the abnormality my making the repressed memory conscious, curing the abnormality and then being helped through the memory.
Also called the talking cure, free association encourages the patient to relax in a peaceful environment and to talk about whatever they want. The therapist must listen and offer no judgment, this way the patient’s internal censor can relax. To help the patient uncover a repressed memory the therapist listens for meaningful associations and notable silences. The therapist will then refocus the patient on those areas of conversation so that they talk more about that subject.
During free association it is vital that the patient expresses all thoughts that come to mind as any thought can help uncover a repressed memory. The therapist will support the patient in interpreting these thoughts so that the patient is able to expand on them further.
This therapy takes a long time; it usually lasts for around a year but can take as long as five years. The same issues are revisited time and time again in order to be clear about the source of the abnormality. The therapist then helps the patient deal with the emotions attached to the memory (abreaction) in order to cure them. A cathartic emotional experience (abreaction) is the process of expressing the emotions of a memory.
Pole and Jones (1988) recorder over 200 sessions of psychoanalysis with a single patient. They compared the complexity of free associations to the abnormalities occurring, these abnormalities decreased during periods of rich free
The psychodynamic approach claims that childhood experiences have an impact on adult behaviour. Some experiences that occur in childhood are too traumatic to deal with so the memories of these events are repressed as the ego is too weak to cope with them. Later in life these repressions can resurface as abnormalities thus needing to seek therapy. One of the major treatments in psychoanalysis is free association. This treats the abnormality my making the repressed memory conscious, curing the abnormality and then being helped through the memory.
Also called the talking cure, free association encourages the patient to relax in a peaceful environment and to talk about whatever they want. The therapist must listen and offer no judgment, this way the patient’s internal censor can relax. To help the patient uncover a repressed memory the therapist listens for meaningful associations and notable silences. The therapist will then refocus the patient on those areas of conversation so that they talk more about that subject.
During free association it is vital that the patient expresses all thoughts that come to mind as any thought can help uncover a repressed memory. The therapist will support the patient in interpreting these thoughts so that the patient is able to expand on them further.
This therapy takes a long time; it usually lasts for around a year but can take as long as five years. The same issues are revisited time and time again in order to be clear about the source of the abnormality. The therapist then helps the patient deal with the emotions attached to the memory (abreaction) in order to cure them. A cathartic emotional experience (abreaction) is the process of expressing the emotions of a memory.
Pole and Jones (1988) recorder over 200 sessions of psychoanalysis with a single patient. They compared the complexity of free associations to the abnormalities occurring, these abnormalities decreased during periods of rich free