free association

In psychoanalysis, a therapeutic technique developed by Sigmund Freud in which the patient is encouraged to repeat whatever comes to mind without reservation. Freud claimed that, in the patient's unforced statements, unconscious wishes were unwittingly revealed, allowing analysis to proceed where the resistance or repression usually manifest in personal disclosure would otherwise interfere.

The process of free association, which is still widely used in psychoanalysis today, is generally facilitated by the nonemotive prompting of the analyst.