The Fundamental Rule: Its Utilization in the Conversion of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy to Psychoanalysis

So say whatever goes through your mind. Act as though, for instance, you were a traveller sitting next to the window of a railway carriage and describing to someone inside the carriage the changing views which you see outside. Finally, never forget that you have promised to be absolutely honest, and never leave anything out because, for some reason or other, it is unpleasant to tell it.

Although analysts differ regarding which factors are essential to psychoanalysis, free association is generally agreed to be a central aspect of the psychoanalytic process. Since Freud (1912) formally articulated the “fundamental rule,” analysts have presented it to their patients in a variety of ways, stressing that, without censorship or editing, the analysand should attempt to put into words whatever comes to his mind and whatever he experiences. This paper explores the origins and purpose of fundamental rule in psychoanalysis with particular consideration of its role in the treatment of individuals whose psychoanalytic psychotherapy is converted to psychoanalysis. The manner in