The author stresses Pavlov's experimental finding that all stimuli create zones of partial, circumscribed or diffuse cortical inhibition; hence the necessity for the analyst to be quiet, impersonal and relatively invisible, lest he 'blankets the patient's own cortical productions under strong inhibition'. The patient's free associations are regarded as a chain of conditioned reflexes, each acting as stimulus to the next.

Time relations are a fundamental feature of conditioned reflexes, and this is paralleled by the analytic finding that a time relation between associations indicates a dynamic connection, which need not be a logical one. Pavlov found also that instinctual tension was necessary for the operation of conditioned or unconditioned reflexes. In the same way, the analyst can avoid inhibition only by avoiding gratification of the patient.