This paper reports an interesting experimental study dealing with Freud's advice to give equal attention to everything, to maintain evenly divided attention in the face of all that the analyst hears. The well-designed study indicates that 'listening away' has specific advantages in specific circumstances, but should not be considered an all-purpose clinical tool. If the listener is primed for the particular content, as by theoretical preference or personal preoccupation, it appears to be an advantage. However, it does not seem to be particularly serviceable for discovering a theme that is completely new. Rather, the authors propose close listening to compile enough material for a working hypothesis and only then 'listening away' to increase the chances of discovering more material to support the hypothesis. What might be of further interest in the light of these data is a consideration of the issue of the analyst finding only the additional material that tends to support his already established hypothesis.