free associationnoun [ U ]
uk/ˌfriː ə.səʊ.siˈeɪ.ʃən/us/ˌfriː ə.soʊ.siˈeɪ.ʃən/a method of trying to see how the human mind works, in which a person says the first word that they think of after hearing a word that is spoken to them
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Science of psychology & psychoanalysis
- cognitive
- commit
- committal
- Freudian
- gestalt
- id
- inkblot test
- Jungian
- Oedipal
- psych
- psycho
- psychoanalyse
- psychological
- repression
- shock therapy
- shrink
- subliminal
- superego
- transference
- word association
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Examples from literature
- In free association and the ink-blot tests they are nearly as good.
- The dream, as a rule, merely furnishes the starting-point for free association.
- The free association technique begins by trying to think about nothing in a relaxed, tension-free environment.