ABSTRACT
The method of free association is a joint venture that patient and analyst undertake in the service of the patient's therapeutic goals. The therapeutic goals are approached by promoting associative continuity and increasing freedom of association. The arrangements of fee and schedule provide a point of special importance in a consideration of the analyst's responsibilities in the free association method. The responsibility of the analyst to warn patients of impending dangers is based not upon the authority of the analyst or upon some superior understanding of the world. The analyst's relatively greater vigilance, in addition to his training and experience, makes it more his responsibility to assess the course and meanings of the associations. The psychoanalytic concept of interpretation and of the analyst as interpreter can serve as a starting point for a discussion of the analyst's responsibilities. Interpretation in psychoanalysis means translation from inferred unconscious language into the everyday language of conscious discourse.
