On the Unique Power of Free-Associative Discourse: Notes on the Contributions of Henry Zvi Lothane and Christopher Bollas

ABSTRACT

It is argued that the method of free association is, as Freud suggested, the sine qua non of psychoanalysis. Appreciation is expressed for the different ways in which writers such as Lothane and Bollas have argued this position. Lothane’s article is then used as a platform from which to elaborate the thesis that there is no psychoanalysis without the praxis of free-association and its attendant auxiliary notions of resistance and repression. The argument draws on Barratt’s previous writings on this topic concerning the way in which only the free-associative method comprises a de-repressive method of discursive speaking, listening, and opening to desire that is otherwise than representationality.

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Notes on contributors

Barnaby B. Barratt

Barnaby B. Barratt, Ph.D., DHS, is Director of Studies, Parkmore Institute; Training Analyst, South African Psychoanalytic Association; and Senior Research Fellow, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of Witwatersrand.