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THE CARE OF SOULS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
words that are likely to have no particular significance for the
confidant—to familiarise him with the method. One then turns
to a series of ‘irritant words’, specially chosen for the purpose,
which usually have to do with ideas, relations and memories
having a strong emotional tone. The confidant is again
instructed to name the first word he thinks of as each ‘irritant’
word is read to him, and with the aid of a stop-watch his
reaction time is measured. Among the irritant words will be
some that are associated with the affective dispositions or
memories of the confidant. When these words are spoken the
time taken by the confidant to make a response varies greatly
from the average. Occasionally it is suspiciously short, but
usually it is greatly prolonged. These abnormal reaction times
indicate that contact has been made with something important
in the unconscious; but other intimations of this are usually
given as well in the form of changes in vocal tone, hesitant or
stammering speech, facial pallor or flushing, modifications of
demeanour and gesture.
It is important to observe that the method of free association
does not yield any magical or infallible results. For instance,
reaction times may vary for reasons that have nothing to do
with repressed associations. Nevertheless the clues provided by
free association can be invaluable, especially when they are
brought into relation with other knowledge of the personality
derived from the confidant’s account of his problems and
experiences in the course of a patient and sustained enquiry.
The kind of result that can be expected in favourable
circumstances from word associations is illustrated by an
experiment made by Jung on one of his patients, who during a
period of depression had decided to drown himself. Notice the
reaction-times for the italicised words in the following table:
IRRITANT WORD. REACTION WORD. REACTION TIME.
(IN SECS.)
1. Head Hair 1.4
2. Green Field 1.6
3. Wiater Deep 5.0
4. Stab Knife 1.6
5. Boat Sink 3.4
6. Long Table 1.2
57
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