ABSTRACT
Listening to associativity, i.e. the fundamental method of psychoanalysis, is no longer taught in certain training institutes for psychoanalysis. The concept of transference tends to designate only what concerns the relationship with the psychoanalyst. These are two fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, the two fundamental concepts of psychoanalytic practice, two fundamental concept whose sense or importance threatens to be lost in some practices of psychoanalysis. In this chapter, I propose to re-examine these questions in the light of Freud’s position and the reasons that he puts forward to justify his position. It is through associativity that the unconscious aspects of the psychic life are recognized, that the archaic schemes and the organizing psychic processes are recognizable much more than in the contents. Associativity and transference are closely associated from the outset, and it is through psychic associativity that the “displacement of the historical situation onto the present situation”, which defines the essence of transference in Freud, can be recognized or inferred. It is also by returning strictly to these Freudian definitions, the very essence of psychoanalysis, that we can hope to reconstruct the historical situations at the origin of the narcissistic distortions.
