Although Freud considered the rule of free association to be fundamental, he was tentative about the recommendations he made concerning other aspects of analysis. Three quarters of a century later, there is still no formal theory of the working arrangements in treatment, and even the fundamental rule is considered by analytic clinicians to be optional. I portray therapy as a dyadic social system and examine its primary task, boundaries, divisions of labor and authority, and culture in order to weigh the importance of the fundamental rule to task achievement. I find several advantages to making free association a role requirement upon the patient, including, inter alia, the freedom it provides the therapist for relaxed observation, counterassociation, and thought.