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Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 42, Issue 1 197-219, Copyright © 1980 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Free association as a biopsychosocial probe

PH Knapp

Free association was used as an experimental approach in a pilot study of four healthy subjects. Physiologically simultaneous measurement of respiratory minute volume showed a wide range of moment-to-moment values, possibly reflecting shifts in emotional state. Psychologically, subjects manifested classical resistance and transference attitudes. These psychological findings were confirmed in a second study using seven mild asthmatics and six healthy comparison subjects. The asthmatics showed significant constriction of verbal associative productivity and also significantly greater "immaturity" in drawings of two humans and of an animal, serially administered before and after three free associative sessions. A third study of associative output after stressful stimulation, using 17 asthmatics and 16 controls, confirmed the verbal constriction of the asthmatics. Free association permits study of psychosocial context and, in particular, reconstruction of important self--other relationships. These factors are important in assessing the "strain" surrounding manifest expression of emotion. Verbatim associative productions from experimental subjects and from a patient in psychoanalysis are used to form a model of emotional processes in acute bronchial asthma. This is a special case of Engel's general biopsychosocial model of disease.




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Copyright © 1980 by the American Psychosomatic Society