Free Associate Research Articles

Creativity: Challenges and Obstacles to Blossoming

This paper addresses the conditions for the development of creativity and the possible obstacles along the way. It explores conscious and unconscious mechanisms which either impede or support this process. Creativity is seen as a special case of relationships between internal and external objects, with some aspects being more consistent and others being more fluid throughout an individual's life. This paper is based on the clinical experience of psychodynamic work with clients whose psychological predicaments related to creativity impoverished different areas of their lives. The non‐exhaustive list of factors to be considered when working with those clients includes a blocked epistemophilic instinct, excessively repressed aggression, and strong negative projections. A harsh superego opposing a weak ‘internal supporter’ combined with an internalised negative parental attitude to their own creativity constitutes a powerful unconscious force which prevents it from blossoming. A high level of basic anxiety, a low degree of omnipotence, and the release of endorphins in response to suffering contribute to these difficulties. Insufficient capacity to sublimate emotions and an inability to free associate prevent clients from finding the links between ideas born in the mind and their expression that could be accessed by others.

Lexical choice and word formation in a taboo game paradigm

We investigate the onomasiological question of which words speakers actually use and produce when trying to convey an intended meaning. This is not limited to selecting the best-fitting available existing word, but also includes word formation, the coinage of novel words. In the first two experiments, we introduce the taboo game paradigm in which participants were instructed to produce a single-word substitution for different words so that others can later identify them. Using distributional semantic models with the capability to produce quantitative representations for existing and novel word responses, we find that (a) responses tend to be semantically close to the targets and (b) existing words were represented closer than novel words, but (c) even novel compounds were often closer than the targets’ free associates. In a final third experiment, we find that other participants are more likely to guess the correct original word (a) for responses closer to the original targets, and (b) for novel compound responses as compared to existing word responses. This shows that the production of both existing and novel words can be accurately captured in a unified computational framework of the semantic mechanisms driving word choice.

Using spreading activation to understand repetitive negative thinking

ABSTRACT Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) describes a recursive, unproductive pattern of thought that is commonly observed in individuals who experience anxiety and depression. Past research on RNT has primarily relied on self-report, which fails to capture the potential mechanisms that underlie the persistence of maladaptive thought. We investigated whether RNT may be maintained by a negatively biased semantic network. The present study used a modified free association task to assess state RNT. Following the presentation of a valenced (positive, neutral, negative) cue word, participants generated a series of free associates, which allowed for the dynamic progression of responses. State RNT was conceptualised as the length of consecutive, negatively valenced free associates (i.e. chains). Participants also completed two self-report measures that assessed trait RNT and trait negative affect. Within a structural equation model, negative (but not positive or neutral) response chain length positively predicted trait RNT and negative affect, and this was only the case for positive (but not negative or neutral) cue words. These results suggest that RNT tendencies may be reflected in semantic retrieval and can be assessed without self-report.

Some Arguments About Free Association as a Technique.

Freud, early in psychoanalytic history, modified hypnotic technique and recommended, in its stead, free association. This paper takes a close look at the theoretical foundations of that technique in light of theoretical developments over the past hundred plus years. It is argued that free association is similar to an asymptote, which is never quite reached. Moreover, it is argued that the direction to free associate is contraindicated in many, if not most, psychological disturbances. Guided association or avoidance of free association is sometimes required. For a limited group of patients, whose major ego functions (abstraction, integration, and reality testing), ego strengths (impulse control, affect tolerance, and containing primary process), object relations (capacities for empathy, trust, and closeness), and superego (shame/guilt) are intact, the direction to use the couch and attempt to free associate may still be quite useful. For most people who present for treatment, however, this approach is likely not beneficial. The complex arguments about the decision-making process regarding free association are discussed.

Led Around by the Nose

Led Around by the Nose

Losing Freud

Losing Freud

Arab Psyche, Indian Dream, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis

Arab Psyche, Indian Dream, and the Ethics of Psychoanalysis

Transference and Countertransference Dynamics in a Multifamily Group for Transgender Adolescents.

This article is an account of a pioneering multifamily group for transgender adolescents. Meetings were conducted in a Sexual Identity Consultation Service in a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department in Paris. In addition to enabling both teenagers and their parents to escape a certain form of isolation, this novel mental health care setting also reinforced the ability of participants to free associate and to cathect substitute objects. The author highlights specific characteristics of transference movements and countertransference reactions of the therapists in this framework. An additional goal is to promote these innovative groups and to recommend similar groups for transgender adolescents and their parents.

Self-Representations of Military Veterans Suffering From Chronic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: The Role of Sport.

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric illness that is very prevalent in both civilian and military environments. The clinical course, regardless of management, is chronic for a number of patients, especially veterans. Persistent PTSD symptoms interact with representations of the person and their body, and may negatively impact rehabilitation. Sport is known to help psychiatric patients such as those suffering from PTSD, as it improves the connection with the body, and supports physiological and emotional regulation. However, the impact of sport on self-representations has not yet been studied. The first aim of this study is to explore person and body representations in a population of military veterans suffering from chronic PTSD, as a function of clinical severity. Second, it aims to explore how a 9-day sport program, which includes an element of socio-professional rehabilitation, changes representations of the person and their body.Methods: This exploratory qualitative study examined the self-representation of veterans with chronic PTSD before a sport rehabilitation program. Veterans were given the prompts “body” and “person” and asked to free associate. PTSD severity and the mind–body connection were assessed using the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5, and the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, respectively. Parasympathetic activity was recorded at rest. A subgroup of the population volunteered to participate in a post-program session to record the same semantic, psychological, and physiological variables.Results: Although before the program, veterans gave more negatively than positively valenced words, no relation was observed between the overall number of negative words and PTSD severity. Post-program, changes were observed in terms of valence. Specifically, some negatively-valenced categories of words disappeared, and some positive categories appeared. At the same time, there was a fall in PTSD severity, an increase in the mind–body connection, and a decrease in parasympathetic activation.Conclusions: This study highlighted that veterans with chronic PTSD have a negative representation of the self. A dedicated, 9-day program that included regular sport improved self-representations related to both the person and their body, and reduced PTSD symptoms. The findings underline the importance of ensuring that programs for patients suffering from chronic PTSD should include sporting activity, and highlight the benefits. Sport appears to be a path to the reappropriation of a positive image of the self, by improving the representation of the body. This relationship could be consistent with improved interoception, but our results need further investigation.

The Function of Work on the Countertransference in a Case with Constricted Discourse and Autistic Features

This paper discusses the psychotherapy of a patient with autistic features and rigid resistance to free association. The patient often presented his experience as merely physical sensations. The paper juxtaposes two theories that illuminate the clinical picture. Tustin's theory of autistic objects identifies a defensive manoeuvre whereby sensation is actively substituted for the primary maternal object. Green's concept of the central phobic position describes a peculiarly rigid phobia of free association that functions to defend against awareness that a murder is felt to have taken place in the psyche. The author proposes that, in this patient, Tustin's substitution of sensation for the mother is Green's psychic murder. A therapeutic impasse that arose during the treatment was resolved following some working through in the countertransference. The patient's inability to free associate was subsequently ameliorated, and his previous inability to acknowledge oedipal reality shifted. He could then acknowledge, appreciate and identify with a paternal authority figure. This illustrates, the author considers, Scariati's observation that in the treatment of patients with impaired capacity for symbolization, countertransferential working through precedes the patient's acquiring a capacity for working through in the transference. Indeed, it facilitates this capacity.

The Pilgrims’ Progress: A Therapist and Patient Journey to London

ABSTRACTThis paper describes in narrative form the unusual treatment of a suicidally depressed middle-aged man. The patient found it all but impossible to free associate, but the analyst discovered in time that talking to him about dogs and books made it possible for them to connect. A shared passionate interest in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, a trilogy that brought the patient’s deepest selfobject longings into sharp relief, led them to consider traveling to London to see it performed at the National Theater when it was adapted for the stage, which they ultimately did. How the idea of this journey evolved and what occurred during it and in its aftermath is discussed. As is the question of what constitutes therapeutic action.

A Role for the Left Angular Gyrus in Episodic Simulation and Memory.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies indicate that episodic simulation (i.e., imagining specific future experiences) and episodic memory (i.e., remembering specific past experiences) are associated with enhanced activity in a common set of neural regions referred to as the core network. This network comprises the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and left angular gyrus, among other regions. Because fMRI data are correlational, it is unknown whether activity increases in core network regions are critical for episodic simulation and episodic memory. In the current study, we used MRI-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to assess whether temporary disruption of the left angular gyrus would impair both episodic simulation and memory (16 participants, 10 females). Relative to TMS to a control site (vertex), disruption of the left angular gyrus significantly reduced the number of internal (i.e., episodic) details produced during the simulation and memory tasks, with a concomitant increase in external detail production (i.e., semantic, repetitive, or off-topic information), reflected by a significant detail by TMS site interaction. Difficulty in the simulation and memory tasks also increased after TMS to the left angular gyrus relative to the vertex. In contrast, performance in a nonepisodic control task did not differ statistically as a function of TMS site (i.e., number of free associates produced or difficulty in performing the free associate task). Together, these results are the first to demonstrate that the left angular gyrus is critical for both episodic simulation and episodic memory.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Humans have the ability to imagine future episodes (i.e., episodic simulation) and remember episodes from the past (i.e., episodic memory). A wealth of neuroimaging studies have revealed that these abilities are associated with enhanced activity in a core network of neural regions, including the hippocampus, medial prefrontal cortex, and left angular gyrus. However, neuroimaging data are correlational and do not tell us whether core regions support critical processes for simulation and memory. In the current study, we used transcranial magnetic stimulation and demonstrated that temporary disruption of the left angular gyrus leads to impairments in simulation and memory. The present study provides the first causal evidence to indicate that this region is critical for these fundamental abilities.

Continuous Dependence for Two Implicit Kirk-Type Algorithms in General Hyperbolic Spaces

This paper aims to study extensively some results concerning continuous dependence for implicit Kirk-Mann and implicit Kirk-Ishikawa iterations. In order to equipoise the formation of these algorithms, we introduce a general hyperbolic space which is no doubt a free associate of some known hyperbolic spaces. The present results are extension of other results and they can be used in many applications.

Broaden the mind before ideation: The effect of conceptual attention scope on creativity

Many theorists have argued that creativity essentially derives from associating and combining seemingly unrelated concepts; by implication, psychological factors that facilitate the association of remote concepts may be conducive to creativity. The present study attempted to test the potential effect of one of these factors, the scope of conceptual attention – defined as the range of activation of mental representations in long-term memory. Broad conceptual attention engenders activation of a wide range of memory contents simultaneously, increasing the possibility of discovering useful associations between remote concepts, thus the hypothesis was that broad conceptual attention facilitates creativity. Three experiments were conducted using two different manipulations of conceptual attention scope. Their effects on creativity shown in imagined alien creatures were observed. The results demonstrated evidence to support the hypothesis. Specifically, Experiment 1 revealed that participants who had to generate free associates to the presented categories subsequently showed higher levels of creativity than those who had to generate associates confined by category boundaries, namely exemplars of the same categories. Experiment 2 aimed to replicate the effect of the manipulation on creativity and also examine its impact on analytic thinking. The results suggested that conceptual attention scope might affect creativity, but did not impact deductive reasoning. In Experiment 3, the participants whose attention was broadened by producing atypical category exemplars were more creative than those who generated typical exemplars. Overall, the findings lent support for the associative theory of creativity and similar accounts, and their practical significance is discussed in this paper.

Relative meaning frequencies for 578 homonyms in two Spanish dialects: A cross-linguistic extension of the English eDom norms.

Relative meaning frequency is a critical factor to consider in studies of semantic ambiguity. In this work, we examined how this measure may change across the European and Rioplatense dialects of Spanish, as well as how the overall distributional properties differ between Spanish and English, using a computer-assisted norming approach based on dictionary definitions (Armstrong, Tokowicz, & Plaut, 2012). The results showed that the two dialects differ considerably in terms of the relative meaning frequencies of their constituent homonyms, and that the overall distributions of relative frequencies vary considerably across languages, as well. These results highlight the need for localized norms to design powerful studies of semantic ambiguity and suggest that dialectal differences may be responsible for some discrepant effects related to homonymy. In quantifying the reliability of the norms, we also established that as few as seven ratings are needed to converge on a highly stable set of ratings. This approach is therefore a very practical means of acquiring essential data in studies of semantic ambiguity, relative to past approaches, such as those based on the classification of free associates. The norms also present new possibilities for studying semantic ambiguity effects within and between populations who speak one or more languages. The norms and associated software are available for download at http://edom.cnbc.cmu.edu/ or http://www.bcbl.eu/databases/edom/ .

Increasing breadth of semantic associations with left frontopolar direct current brain stimulation: a role for individual differences.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of left frontopolar versus auditory (control) cortex transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on the breadth of semantic associations produced in a cued free association task. A within-participants design administered anodal tDCS over the left frontopolar or auditory cortex, centered at electrode site AFZ or T7 using a 4×1 targeted stimulation montage. During stimulation, participants produced free associates in response to cues designed to promote narrow, moderate, or broad semantic associations. We measured the latent semantic associative strength of generated words relative to cues. The cue manipulation produced expected effects on the associative breadth of generated words, but there was no main effect of stimulation site, and calculated Bayes factors showed strong support for the null hypothesis. However, individual differences in creative potential, as assessed by the remote associates test, reliably and positively predicted increases in associative breadth under the frontopolar versus the auditory control condition, but only in response to narrow cues. In conclusion, the present data support neuroimaging studies demonstrating the involvement of left frontopolar cortical regions in generating relatively broad semantic associations. They also provide novel evidence that individual differences in creative potential may modulate the influence of brain stimulation on the breadth of generated semantic associations.

Erratum to: Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups

Erratum to: Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups

Free associate norms for 139 European Portuguese words for children from different age groups

In the present study, we present normative ratings of free association for 139 European Portuguese (EP) words among 7- to 8-, 9- to 10-, and 11- to 12-year-old children attending the 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades of elementary and middle school in Portugal. For each word, five indices are presented: (a) the percentage of associates, (b) the strength of the first associate, (c) the strength of the second associate, (d) the distance between the first and second associates, and (e) the percentage of idiosyncratic responses. Additionally, grade-level frequency values for each word from the ESCOLEX database (Soares et al., in press) are also provided. As expected, the results revealed developmental changes in the knowledge organization of the children, which occurred at the ages of 9-10 (5th grade) and remained stable in the 11- to 12-year-old children (7th grade). Specifically, we observed a decrease in the percentages of associates and idiosyncratic responses, as well as an increase in the strengths of the first and second associates from the 3rd to the 5th grade. Moreover, a comparative analysis with the previous work of Carneiro, Albuquerque, Fernandez, and Esteves (2004) on EP and Macizo, Gómez-Ariza, and Bajo (2000) on Spanish, for the subsets of common words (16 and 58, respectively), showed that the present norms fit well with previous EP data, but differ from the Spanish data.

What do you mean “drunk”? Convergent validation of multiple methods of mapping alcohol expectancy memory networks.

The configuration and activation of memory networks have been theorized as mechanisms that underlie the often observed link between alcohol expectancies and drinking. A key component of this network is the expectancy "drunk." The memory network configuration of "drunk" was mapped by using cluster analysis of data gathered from the paired-similarities task (PST) and the Alcohol Expectancy Multi-Axial Assessment (AEMAX). A third task, the free associates task (FA), assessed participants' strongest alcohol expectancy associates and was used as a validity check for the cluster analyses. Six hundred forty-seven 18-19-year-olds completed these measures and a measure of alcohol consumption at baseline assessment for a 5-year longitudinal study. For both the PST and AEMAX, "drunk" clustered with mainly negative and sedating effects (e.g., "sick," "dizzy," "sleepy") in lighter drinkers and with more positive and arousing effects (e.g., "happy," "horny," "outgoing") in heavier drinkers, showing that the cognitive organization of expectancies reflected drinker type (and might influence the choice to drink). Consistent with the cluster analyses, in participants who gave "drunk" as an FA response, heavier drinkers rated the word as more positive and arousing than lighter drinkers. Additionally, gender did not account for the observed drinker-type differences. These results support the notion that for some emerging adults, drinking may be linked to what they mean by the word "drunk."

The company that words keep: comparing the statistical structure of child- versus adult-directed language

Does child-directed language differ from adult-directed language in ways that might facilitate word learning? Associative structure (the probability that a word appears with its free associates), contextual diversity, word repetitions and frequency were compared longitudinally across six language corpora, with four corpora of language directed at children aged 1.0 to 5.0, and two adult-directed corpora representing spoken and written language. Statistics were adjusted relative to shuffled corpora. Child-directed language was found to be more associative, repetitive and consistent than adult-directed language. Moreover, these statistical properties of child-directed language better predicted word acquisition than the same statistics in adult-directed language. Word frequency and repetitions were the best predictors within word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives and function words). For all word classes combined, associative structure, contextual diversity and word repetitions best predicted language acquisition. These results support the hypothesis that child-directed language is structured in ways that facilitate language acquisition.