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The premise of this book is a sharp distinction drawn between free association and the fundamental rule, by which the analysand is charged to speak whatever comes to mind. Ordinarily the two ideas are spoken of as if synonymous, despite their logical asymmetry. Free association is a technical procedure, objectively definable; the basic rule is an injunction, in M. Guy Thompson's view an ethical injunction, openly or tacitly accepted as such by the analysand. As such, the rule “say whatever comes to mind” accentuates the word “whatever,” implying that any choice of expression will be confronted by inner limitations opposing honest expression. It is the emphasized word that sets the philosophical tone for the book: Thompson, an experienced analyst now affiliated with the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, presents a view of psychoanalysis as a quest for inner freedom through what might be called training in honesty.
The overriding character of Thompson's thought is phenomenological; it is rooted in that school of philosophy, in which the lived experience is paramount. Although the philosophical elaborations of phenomenology are far from simple, its application to psychoanalysis is readily comprehensible. If we can define biology as the investigation of organisms, phenomenology is the investigation of appearances, that is, of things as they appear. What appear in a psychoanalytic session are the thoughts of the analysand—“whatever comes to mind”— mediated through words, but also confined by intentions of which the analysand may not be aware. This, together with the corresponding attention of the analyst, is the analytic situation as experienced—a sufficient description only if we add to it the emotional reality of both participants.
Thompson wrestles throughout the book with questions about the use the analyst makes of what the patient says, questions that reflect the analyst's personal emotional responses and attitudes, as well as attitudes derived from tr