Imagery and transference in the analytic process

The structural and formal aspects of free association have not received adequate attention in the psychoanalytic literature partly because of the methodological problems involved in their objective study. Visual imagery aroused considerable interest during Freud's concentration technique but, following this, interest in imagery has declined and has remained low despite the "primacy" retained by the dreams in the analytic practice and theory. Visual imagery, an integral part of conscious thought, is enhanced during free association by the regression, the altered states of consciousness, the suspension of censorship and the shift in figure ground relationships of ordinary awareness of the analytic setting as the analysis progresses and, despite the deepening of regression, the development of transference and the establishment of the analyst as the focal figure of the patient's experience produce a shift from the visual to the verbal and a decrease in the sensory elements of free association. The predominantly verbal nature of the analytic exchange once transference is established is underscored by the analyst's interpretations which, by their emphasis on ordered verbal thought, reinforce the dialectical elements of analysis. The above shift from the visual to the verbal during free association was well illustrated in a case where the development of transference signalled the decrease of the abundant visual element present at the beginning in the material of the patient. Interestingly, the patient's dreams became equally more verbal as the analysis progressed, a phenomenon which was also observed by Anzieu in Freud's dreams in his study of the latter's self-analysis. The possible mechanism for this shift and its significance are discussed.