Free Association, Synchrony, and Neural Networks as Evolutionary Exponents in Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The author is proposing a reexamination of our own attitude toward psychoanalysis in modern society. Free association remains a fundamental psychoanalytic technique that has been reported to have separate curative functions. Deconstruction and reconstruction of the human thought process; the reshaping of implicit memory; and the aspects of an individual’s self have all been linked to spontaneous thought and free association. Additionally, neuroscience has revealed that very different and complex neural networks (default mode network, interacting variably, with the executive cortex, etc.) are at play in all these “mental reshaping” processes. Taken together, contemporary psychoanalysis, similar to ancient forms of meditation, stream of consciousness, and the creative process itself in different fields, constitutes evolutionarily based natural processes that are meant to allow for the creation of adaptive thoughts. This, in turn, allows for the creation of solutions in life, mental/psychological survival, and social adaption. The author will conclude with recommendation for further integration of different schools of thought into a unified understanding of psychoanalytic change, in view of nonlinear dynamics in complex system theory.

1. Introduction

As part of a process of epistemic expansion in psychoanalysis, besides a long-standing relationship with philosophy, many authors have created dialogs with other disciplines, over the past decades. The humanities, attachment, developmental studies, and ethnic and gender identity studies are only few fields that are currently contributing to the creation of diversity in our field. As a discipline, neuropsychoanalysis has been officially founded in 2000, but it has reflected the rapid development of neuroscientific research and the need for a dialog between brain sciences and psychoanalysis. In fact, such a dialog can be traced back to Freud’s “Project” and “On Aphasia.” In this chapter, I will be covering the “interface,” the intersection and interaction at the border of a variety of concepts in psychoanalysis. I will begin with some of the previously presented ideas on free association (FA), as an enduring basic concept, the ground rule (i.e., Grundregel), and its relationship to thought deconstruction, reconstruction, and therapeutic change in psychoanalysis. I will then propose that the primal repressed (PR) and synchrony be considered as subjects of our future exploration, from a neuropsychoanalytic point of view.

2. Evolution as manifested in thought process

In a contemporary context, FA can be seen as a representative of a variety of ancient practices that have promoted mental and physical health [1]. In the same vein, we have found culturally and religiously sanctioned techniques in every culture that are known to promote health [2]. From the prayer of the heart, the roseries, Jewish davening to different forms of meditation in Hindu, Buddhist, and Zen traditions, they all promote the triggering of the relaxation response [2], a form of altered states of consciousness that accesses semi-trans and vagal tone enhancing [3] similar to what is experienced at times, on the analytic couch in the process of free association.

While Freud rejected organized religion, he was familiar with Eastern traditions and mysticism in general [4]. Freud was entrenched in German philosophical writing: works by Schopenhauer, who was influenced by Indian Vedantic and Buddhist literature. He corresponded with Girindrasekar Bose, who introduced psychoanalysis in India. He cited Upanishad in a footnote of Beyond the Pleasure Principle [5]. Freud owned a statue of Vishnu, the Indian creator god of laws. Freud was interested in the spirituality of different cultures and had knowledge of the Kabbala. Freud did understand the significant role of mystical experiences in history as an expression of the human mind. He wrote the paper The Uncanny [6], about the dread in situations where childish fears and phantasies appear more real than our adult world perception.

Freud first reported in his studies on aphasia that mental activity has dynamic neurological concomitance. This idea of the brain functioned as dynamic and adjustable, inspired by Jacksonian neurology, and constituted inspiration for the founding of psychoanalysis. With it, Freud moved psychology from the realms of philosophy to that of natural science [7]. On Aphasia [8] may have served as an inspiration for non-localized dynamic brain function in neurology, creating the basis of psychodynamics for psychoanalysis. This, later inspired Luria, the founder of Functional Neuropsychology, is still in use today. As it is well known by now, Freud first used free association (FA) with Frau von N. [9]. However, a closer examination of the text may suggest that prior to that, in studies on hysteria [10], Freud noticed that Elizabeth von R’s feelings were cut off from connections of thoughts and the rest of the ideational content of her mind, an early indication for retrieving the “pathological psychical material,” by what would later become a free association.

3. A proposed new definition of FA

In a previous contribution, we summarized our understanding into an updated definition of FA, the ground rule of psychoanalysis [1].

Free association is an internally energized emotional cognitive mobility that taps into all forms of memory (episodic, implicit, embodied, and unformulated) and facilitates memory reconsolidation and simulation of future possibilities.

This definition offers a perspective of a process that has a spontaneous side (mediated by the default mode network of the brain—the DMN), which is recruited by an internal activation (mainly by the executive network of the brain—EN), with a variable expansion. A space of “mobility” that accesses all forms of memories includes vestigial somatic preverbal internalizations. Once activated, such memories undergo a process of reconsolidation. This refers to a reshaping of a memory according to the emotional experience from the time of recollection [11, 12, 13]. One of the essential features of FA as a form of mobility is the fact that its kinetics may extend from analysand to analyst as a continuously interactive expandable therapeutic space that is synchronized in time (the “timing”) by a variety of mirroring mechanisms. The well-known observation that “the patient speaks, and the analyst freely associates” [14, 15] accurately describes the multiple possibilities of entrance into this space of “mobility” of FA.

4. Psychoanalysis as a doctrine of adaptation and growth

4.1 The primal repressed

Freud [16], in his paper on repression, differentiated primal repression from repression proper. The former may not be representable, while the latter is repressed of buried material behind defenses that may surface in the course of psychoanalysis out of the preconscious. Linked to the variability of repression, Green [17] concluded that meaning making that is representable is preconscious. Psychoanalysis directly addresses the repression of self-reflection (“self-consciousness”). As a consequence, the unrepresentable, deeply unconscious material, does not surface in language.

In Freud’s terms, the primal repression or the arch-repressed (Urverdrängung), which remains un-representable (through language), is tightly linked to drives, Triebe, and instincts Instinkte. Therefore, Freud’s “unconscious” remains, in Eagles’ terms a “cauldron full of seething excitations” [18]. In fact, Derrida [19] further observed that Freud’s psychoanalysis generates, by means of FA, a “breakdown” that deconstructs the representational system that censors the emergence of the repressed [19]. Solms [20], inspired by affective neuroscience, clarified the difference between drives (Triebe) to be used as demands that need to be met to create homeostasis versus instincts (Instinkte), which are innate predictions or activities preprogrammed and reshaped for development and survival. The latter is connected to the seven proto-emotions previously described by Panksepp¹ [21, 22].

Returning to the nineteenth-century Vienna, Otto Weininger, a philosopher and contemporary of Freud, used the term henid to refer to fragments of thought [23]. Henids also surface during the creative process [24] and may surface in the course of a psychoanalytic encounter. When noticed, henids may give rise to countertransference reactions related to a sense of impenetrability of an analysand’s mentation. However, in many cases, it is a mutation of a deeper repressed that may find a preconscious association that initially bares limited expressive valence. Yet if carefully examined, henids may give a hint to a much deeper content that necessitates a special empathic exploration.

As it is noticed, the unrepresentable may surface in a variety of verbal and emotional enactments that can be captured nonverbally (by means of a large set of nonverbal mirroring mechanisms of the brain) by the psychoanalyst. Ferenczi [25] reported what he referred to as “thought transference,” an instance when the analyst and analysand experience the same thoughts or similar thoughts. This type of resonance may bare significance, among which is the natural timed mirroring of mental and emotional content that resurfaces in expressed language. One can expand the understanding of such mechanisms to somatic body mirroring [26], subliminal perceptions by the amygdala [27, 28], or even more complex interpretations in the realm of quantum physics [29, 30, 31, 32].

Associations and connectivity may be created with neural stimulation arriving from many areas of sensory input of the Self, both in analyst and analysand. These would include the mirror neuron system [33] and the amygdala [27], which recognizes faces and movements, even below the perceptive threshold. The right amygdala is known to register interaction, facial expressions, and movements at the subliminal level below conscious perception. This is particularly pronounced in individuals with a history of trauma [28]. The olfactory system provides subliminal stimuli from the interacting environment. These are transmitted directly to the frontal cortex and by means of the cortico-subcortical reentrant circuits [34], back to the cortex. Thus, the brain can “see” without knowing, which may be transformed into knowing without seeing [35]. The amygdala and mirror neuron system are not part of the DMN, but they have extensive communications with the subcortical areas of the striatum (basal ganglia) and the nearby thalamus, which provide information from somatic areas [36]. Thus, a subliminal signaling system mapping coordinates of another self exists. This system can provide sudden intrusive thought into the cortex, hence an ability to receive signals that may be mixed with “free” thoughts generated by the wandering mind of the DMN [37]. This may be one of many mechanisms by which one experiences synchrony with someone in relatively close physical or emotional proximity.

Psychoanalytically, Barratt affirms that for primal repression, which does not reveal itself in language [4, 38, 39, 40], FA reveals “thing representations,” which are the surface in forms of reactions, affects, or “disruptions” (in Bion’s terms). These are “chasms” that will exist during FA, between representable and meaningful archived memories and traces of the unrepresentable. This will resonate with the analyst’s own approximate internal representation. This is translatable into meaning to different degrees, but sometimes defies interpretations at all [4, 38, 39, 40]. In this sense, FA is a complex mechanism of deconstructing the repressed.

The study of the “arch-repressed” or the unrepresentable content links our inquiry to many aspects of mental life and decision-making processes under circumstances of regression. Ideas are tracible to Bergson’s discussion on memory and moral values [41]. Strohminger and Nichols [42], by studying individuals who developed dementia, have found moral traits (honesty) to be preserved with personality in patients with frontal-temporal neurocognitive impairment. In psychoanalysis, this is translatable into preconscious representation [38]. FA, in revealing initially unrepresentable unconscious fragments, may, in fact, address and reach the deep moral layers of consciousness. FA and psychoanalysis act as an onto-ethical discipline that promotes social affiliation and discourse [40]. The arch-repressed, which may reveal itself indirectly through FA (as “things”), may contain some of the ontological coordinates, which are translatable into preconscious representation [38]. Mirroring, mimicking, and imitation in group interaction may function concomitantly to create synchrony as a form of implicit “knowing” within the field of analyst and analysand [43].

4.2 Restructuring mental content

The relationship between FA and internally governing memories is linked to the self-echo, Heidegger’s description of “Being” (Dasein) [44]. Heidegger proposed that Being (“Da-Sein”) consists of three places: Umwelt (animals and things); Mitwelt or “Mitsein” (human and social world); and Eigenwelt (inner self) [44].

Being (Dasein) “existence” is at the interface between self and “Umwelt” (Environment). In medicine and psychology, trauma can be considered a virtual impact between a human self and the environment [45]. The two colliding forces create an impact with an outcome that depends on factors arising from both colliding components: the self and the environment. Leffert [46] has covered extensively Heidegger’s role in inspiring modern thinking in general and existentialism, in particular. (For a more detailed understanding of Heidegger’s work and its influence on modern existentialism, see [46]).

FA may be one mechanism by which Dasein is deconstructed and reconstructed in psychoanalysis. For psychoanalysis, FA as a clinical method is of a particular significance as it acts at the interface between mental content of autobiographical memory and other forms of memories related to declarative, episodic, implicit memories of sensations, body memories, procedural, etc.

Thoughts undergo an adaptational mechanism similar to evolution. By means of nonlinear dynamic system processes, thought and script adaptation [1] may follow the rules of evolution. Therefore, thought and script adaptation is comprised of two interactive mechanisms: a) mutation; b) selection, adaptation by mutation (reshaping internal scripts in accordance with new environments); and selection (eliminating scripts that no longer serve social and personal adaptation). FA operates within a nonlinear dynamic in complex system theory [47]. It is my contention that one of the most significant roles of FA in psychoanalysis is its function to create recombination of thoughts to create new scripts of what we have previously referred to as “identity narrative” (IdN). IdN is a form of an implicit self-narrative [1, 24, 48, 49, 50].

Implicit self-narratives (ISN) or identity narratives (IdN) are major implicit memory foundations of identity, developed first in infancy but reshaped adaptively and maladaptively by the environment throughout life. FA in psychoanalysis may rework ISN according to the laws of nonlinear dynamic systems and predictive coding [47, 51, 52]. The analytic setting serves as the environmental holding pattern, which reshapes itself too throughout an analysis.

4.3 Interface, contiguity, and neuroscience

Examining FA in the context of recent brain imaging and cognitive science studies has expanded the horizon of exploration in contemporary psychoanalysis [1, 53, 54, 55]. The notion that the brain and mental activity continue during rest has been known and established by neuroscience for many years [56]. Raichel et al. [57] reported the significance of a number of brain areas that remain active during rest in the MRI scanner. Such a task-independent state is associated with the activity of midline structures of the brain [58]. These areas were later referred to as the default mode network (DMN). Subsequent contributions have referred to an entire range of mental activity associated with different degrees of interwoven patterns of activation, between the DMN and the executive network (EN) [53, 59] of the left prefrontal cortex [60].

As functions of the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, the different variants of spontaneous thought activity (STA) include mind wandering, stream of consciousness, creative associations, and FA [61]. Novac and Blinder [1] added free association to the list of spontaneous thought as part of a continuum that contains different levels of voluntary constraint on the thinking process. Based on a review of brain imaging findings, and on work by Bauer et al. [59] in meditators, Novac and Blinder [1] proposed that meditation, free association, and creative chain free association are on a functional continuum. These mental states share similarities, as they all include different degrees of the functional interplay of the DMN (associated with unrestrained thought) and the EN (associated with cognitive control). They may be linked to creativity and play, which often manifests in back-and-forth oscillation between mental states, resulting in the creation of paradigm shifts [62]. The equivalent neural network activity may result in a downregulation of the DMN, associated in the literature with overall health benefits [1].

5. Future directions

I have presented a summary of more recent contributions that point to the importance of practicing a science of interface in promoting progress of the field of psychoanalysis. Some further recommendations to be considered are as follows:

1. Psychoanalytic institutes would benefit from promoting dialog with a variety of disciplines beyond what has been customary. This may lead to a renewed interest in psychoanalysis from other disciplines.

2. I would submit that psychoanalysis, a discipline that does not have its own research methodology, articulates its commitment and clarity to at least four corners of research in science and humanities:

   1. The relevant research in psychiatry, psychology, development, and attachment.

   2. The research in neuroscience and related disciplines.

   3. Social sciences and humanities.

   4. The basic sciences, including concepts of theoretical physics (chaos, catastrophe theories, etc.).

3. The need for tolerance, inclusivity, and a multidisciplinary approach in psychoanalysis is self-evident. Foremost, it is the avoidance of the risk of an intergenerational transmission of traumatic training styles among psychoanalysts, which has been perpetrated in the past in some institutes.

4. Psychoanalysis should continue to strive toward being an open system that promotes free expression.

6. Conclusion

In this chapter, I have covered some new directions of exploration of two major areas in psychoanalysis: free association and its link to science and primal repression, an area recognized by Freud but little referred to in recent writings. Gentile [63] has previously pointed to the relationship between free association and democracy. She posits that:

The ironic definitional “rule” of free association was that there was no rule to follow and no one’s rule. If free association was to prevail, the patient had to bypass conventional rules of conventional censorship, ceding herself to the impetus yet also imperial authority to desirous voice, her unconscious desire (p. 21).

Likewise, exploring some of the aspects of the primal repressed systematically may provide access to a variety of sources of intergenerational transmission of traits and information, an area that has been of particular interest in the study of traumatic stress. It is my contention that the only way of promoting an open field of psychoanalysis is by partnering with the investigative and research methodology of other fields and promoting “joint ventures” that would give further legitimacy to a new psychoanalysis. This shall open our field to new generations of psychoanalytic researchers and clinicians alike.

Acknowledgments

Many thanks go to Bonita N. Jaros, PhD, for the assistance with editing the chapter.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.