Psychic determinism
It relies on the causality principle applied to psychic occurrences in which nothing happens by chance or by accidental arbitrary ways.
Psychoanalytic therapists will generally probe clients and have them elaborate on why something "popped into" their head or why they may have forgotten someone's name rather than ignoring the material.
The therapist then analyze this discussion for clues revealing unconscious connections to the slip of verbal association.
Therapists who adhere to the belief in psychic determinism assume that human action and decisions are predetermined and are not necessarily under their own control.
[3] During psychoanalytic therapy sessions Freud would dissect and question participants if they made a mental lapse or a slip of the tongue, as he believed this would allow him an understanding of the unconscious motives of his patient.
Psychic determinism was an extremely important feature of free association during psychoanalytic therapy, and still holds significance for many psychoanalysts today.
Free association was developed by Sigmund Freud as an alternative to the hypnotic method for treating neurotic patients.
Instead of overlooking this, the therapist would begin to delve into the slip and determine the underlying cause of it, which Freud claimed as generally some unconscious impulse.
[5] During psychoanalysis and free association the patient generally lies on a couch with the analyst sitting close but slightly out of view.
If you allow yourself lie at the will of your free inclinations, with no assumptions whatsoever, you will have the intuition of making things that may surprise you, nevertheless useful to your body and securing your health and high spirits.
We must admit the series of free associations produced by the patient are somehow related to her present circumstances, including a recent reality: her psychoanalytic therapy.
This memory can be related to the present circumstance and it may be translated in the patient's skepticism concerning the utility of this analytic therapy.
Nevertheless, this skepticism has an even older history, bringing to the fore the patient's relationship to her mother, when still a child, and dependent on her parents' support.
The hospital records mention her anger and frustration over the chronic pain along with problems with her marriage and with her family, particularly her mother.
Dr. Smith diagnosed her as multiple personality disorder and had this diagnosis confirmed by an MPD "expert" in a nearby city.
RU spoke to her for four hours and at no time did she display any sign of cognitive slippage, delusions or hallucinations, irrational behavior, or changing personalities.
After therapy three times a week, several hospitalizations, and constant talking about how the personalities helped her cope and how the abuse damaged her permanently, this became her reality."
