Sigmund Freud, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
The method grew out of dissatisfaction with what came before it. Pressing and encouraging the patient to speak on a particular subject gave me a first general survey of the terrain, but it proved too strenuous for both parties and was open to obvious criticisms.1 So I moved to what is, in one sense, the opposite procedure: I asked the patient to abandon himself to free association — to say whatever came into his head, while ceasing to give any conscious direction to his thoughts.2
The sole condition was that he report literally everything that occurred to his self-perception, surrendering the critical objections that would otherwise set certain associations aside as unimportant, irrelevant, or meaningless.3 What makes the method work is something that may at first seem paradoxical: free association is not really free.4
The patient remains under the influence of the analytic situation even when he is not directing his thoughts toward any particular subject, and nothing will occur to him that has not some reference to that situation. The repressed material does not vanish simply because no direct question is put; instead, the resistance finds a subtler means of expression.
It arranges things so that what comes to mind is never the repressed idea itself, but only something that approximates it allusively — and the greater the resistance, the more remote the substitutive association from what the analyst is actually seeking.5 The patient's resistance to the fundamental rule is, in practice, immediate and inventive.
He declares he cannot think of anything; or that too much comes to mind to seize on anything definite; or he allows long pauses to open in his speech and then confesses he is ashamed of what he thought; or he insists that a particular matter is his private affair and exempt from the obligation.6 I once permitted such an exception for a man whose capacity for work made a great deal depend on him and who was bound by an oath of service — he was satisfied with the result, but I was not, and I resolved never to repeat the attempt under such conditions.7
The reason is simple: it is precisely what the patient most wishes to withhold that belongs to the complex we are seeking. His criticism of an association is itself evidence of its significance.8 The analyst, listening without constrained effort to the stream of associations, can use the material in two ways depending on the degree of resistance: where resistance is slight, the allusions permit inference of the unconscious material itself; where resistance is stronger, the associations' increasing remoteness from the subject reveals the character of the resistance, which is then explained to the patient — and uncovering the resistance is the first step toward overcoming it.9
The work of analysis thus involves an art of interpretation that requires tact and practice but is not beyond acquisition. Beyond the saving of labor over the earlier pressing method, free association exposes the patient to the least possible compulsion, keeps contact with the actual current situation, and guarantees that no factor in the structure of the neurosis will be overlooked or introduced from outside.10
The means which I first adopted for overcoming the patient's resistance, by pressing and encouraging him, had been indispensable for the purpose of giving me a first general survey of what was to be expected. But in the long run it proved to be too much of a strain upon both sides and, further, it seemed open to certain obvious criticisms.The Question of Lay Analysis
Instead of urging the patient to say something upon some particular subject, I now asked him to abandon himself to a process of free association, i. e. to say whatever came into his head, while ceasing to give any conscious direction to his thoughts.The Question of Lay Analysis
It was essential, however, that he should bind himself to report literally everything that occurred to his self-perception and not to give way to critical objections which sought to put certain associations on one side on the ground that they were not sufficiently important or that they were irrelevant or that they were altogether meaningless.The Question of Lay Analysis
We must, however, bear in mind that free association is not really free. The patient remains under the influence of the analytic situation even though he is not directing his mental activities onto a particular subject.The Question of Lay Analysis
His resistance against reproducing the repressed material will now be expressed in two ways... the resistance will find another means of expression. It will so arrange it that the repressed material itself will never occur to the patient but only something which approximates to it in an allusive way; and the greater the resistance, the more remote will be the substitutive association which the patient has to report from the actual idea that the analyst is in search of.The Question of Lay Analysis
First he will declare that he cannot think of anything, then, that so much comes to his mind that it is impossible to seize on anything definite. Then we discover with no slight displeasure that he has yielded to this or that critical objection, for he betrays himself by the long pauses which he allows to occur in his speaking. He then confesses that he really cannot bring himself to this, that he is ashamed to.A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
I once brought myself around to permit such an exception in the case of a man on whose capacity for work a great deal depended, and who was bound by his oath of service, which forbade him to tell anyone of certain things. To be sure, he was satisfied with the results--but not I; I resolved never to repeat such an attempt under these conditions.A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
We insist that he should communicate the thought in spite of these objections and that he should follow it up; for this criticism is precisely evidence to us that the thought belongs to the 'complex' which we are seeking.Collected Papers Vol II - Clinical Papers and Technique
If the resistance is slight, he will be able, from the patient's allusions, to infer the unconscious material itself; or if the resistance is stronger, he will be able to recognize from the associations, as they seem to become more remote from the subject, the character of the resistance itself and will explain it to the patient. Uncovering the resistance, however, is the first step towards overcoming it.The Question of Lay Analysis
It exposes the patient to the least possible amount of compulsion, it never allows of contact being lost with the actual current situation, it guarantees to a great extent that no factor in the structure of the neurosis will be overlooked and that nothing will be introduced into it by...The Question of Lay Analysis