Joseph considers free association as central to psychoanalysis and examines its use in conversions from psychotherapy to psychoanalysis. He conceptualizes psychoanalytic psychotherapy as "based on a psychoanalytic understanding of the patient and utilizing psychoanalytic techniques to achieve therapeutic goals through increased self awareness." Psychoanalysis uses the same understanding and techniques but is characterized by less therapeutic structure, greater fluidity of thought and affect, and by broader therapeutic goals. He traces the history of this issue by alluding to the three panels of the American Psychoanalytic Association which paid particular attention to the amount of structure provided in the treatment, and to the degree of therapeutic neutrality.