What is Free Association?

Free association is a psychoanalytic technique developed by Sigmund Freud where patients verbalize whatever comes to mind without censorship or logical filtering. Surrealists adopted this method, applying it to art through automatic writing and automatic drawing. By bypassing conscious control and allowing thoughts to flow freely, artists could access unconscious thoughts, repressed memories, dreams, and desires. The technique became fundamental to Surrealist practice, with Andre Breton and Philippe Soupault using it to write ‘The Magnetic Fields’ (1920). Free association influenced subsequent art movements and remains relevant to understanding how spontaneous, unfiltered creative processes can reveal psychological depths inaccessible to rational thought.