Why Free Association is So Difficult

Most people understand what free association means: to voice all thoughts, feelings and ideas that come to mind during a therapy session, without deciding in advance whether they’re relevant or “worth saying.” At the beginning of traditional psychoanalysis, clients are instructed to freely associate and occasionally reminded to do so as the treatment proceeds. We… Continue reading Why Free Association is So Difficult

Video #3 – “The Transference Begins”

I’ve now uploaded the third installation in my series on psychodynamic psychotherapy, which you can access through the video frame below. This one covers early manifestations of the transference and includes a lot of examples from recent sessions in my practice. It’s a useful counterpart to my earlier post on the subject, fleshing out the… Continue reading Video #3 – “The Transference Begins”

Transference: Uses and Abuses

A visitor to the site submitted several questions about transference in response to an earlier post, and I thought they were so interesting and useful, they deserved a lengthy reply — hence today’s post. As a prelude, I’d like to say a few things about how I view the transference, which is different from the… Continue reading Transference: Uses and Abuses