This paper presents a selection of free associations in the form of blank verse, with their prologue, by the Hungarian poet Attila József who committed suicide in 1937 at the age of 32.

József's associations clearly reveal a negative transference towards his analyst, Edith Gyömroi, blamed for her inadequacy and inability to help him. This negative transference originated from his infantile resentment against an absent father and a mother who was psychologically dead, distant, unreliable, and treacherous, incapable of satisfying his need for love.

Attila's personality, characterized by elements pertaining to malignant and destructive narcissism, as Rosenfeld (1987) described it, reflects the infantile frustration and mental suffering brought about by his abandonment, and is dominated by narcissistic and substitute internal objects, like frail ‘prostheses’ defended by megalomanic phantasies and the omnipotence of thought.