ABSTRACT
The analytic situation is by nature of virtually limitless complexity, and it is important to keep this in mind. The aspect of the analytic situation upon which the author now wishes to focus is one single strand of a complex tapestry: the client's speech. S. Freud tended to see this in a rather stilted way, calling it 'free association', but what is decisive is just that clients be able to relax the usual attention they give to establishing coherence and context in everyday conversation and to speak freely and flowingly about whatever they feel like talking about at the moment. In the author's view, regardless of the specific technical limitations that are adopted, interaction between the two parties involved in the analytic situation should resemble an everyday social interaction as much as possible, with one all-important difference, namely that the focus of the relationship is on both parties getting to know one of them as well as possible.
