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My aim in this paper is to show the strong resistance to the empirical application of Freudian research principles, especially of the ‘fundamental rule’ for the discovery of the unconscious, that marks the first hundred years of psychoanalysis. Research by means of free association is deeply rooted in Freud's concept of the unconscious as a realm in which logical rules are not valid. Though it is not possible to reach a full reconstruction of the unconscious by conscious means, free association allows the nearest approximation.
Below I offer a comparative analysis of the main aspects of traditional psychoanalysis - social, educational, theoretical and technical - as they developed in the hundred years after the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams (, 1901) and the beginnings of the psychoanalytic movement (1902). I will examine these to find out if, in their present form, they allow the application of the analytical method. My assumption is that if such application is impossible and free association processes in personal analysis are even obstructed, then psychoanalysis as it is being practiced now is driven by defensive needs.