PSYCHOANALYSIS AS A TWO-PERSON MEDITATION: FREE ASSOCIATION, MEDITATION AND BION
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Article PSYCHOANALYSIS AS A TWO-PERSON MEDITATION: FREE ASSOCIATION, MEDITATION AND BION Axel Hoffer1
This paper is based on the commonality between free association and the practice of Buddhist meditation in light of the surprising fact that both great traditions devoted to healing human suffering rely on the same fundamental method. After reviewing some aspects of free association and evenly-suspended attention, relevant aspects of Buddhist meditation and Buddhism as a psychology, including thinking and emotion, are compared and contrasted with psychoanalysis. The Buddhist insight of impermanence is highlighted. Freud’s telephone metaphor becomes the basis for a discussion of psychoanalysis as a two-person meditation. Bion’s proposal for the analyst to eschew memory and desire to be in the moment with his patients serves as an introduction to a case by Thomas Ogden which illustrates both Bion’s points and provides an example of a two-person meditation.
KEY WORDS: two-person meditation; free association; evenly-suspended attention; impermanence; Buddhism; Bion https://doi.org/10.1057/s11231-020-09259-7
In this paper, I propose that there are advantages to the idea of viewing psychoanalysis as a two-person meditation. My proposal is based on a heretofore largely unappreciated connection between the field of psychoanalysis and Buddhist psychology, namely free association. The commonality is that in Buddhist meditation, the meditator pays attention to everything in the mind, a technique unexpectedly similar to free association—the ‘‘fundamental rule’’ of psychoanalysis. Freud’s concept of free association, simply stated, involves saying whatever comes to mind, without self-criticism or judgment, a simple sounding but profound idea. Similarly, Buddhist monks meditate by paying attention to their minds, specifically by focusing awareness on thoughts, bodily sensations, images and everything that comes into the mind. They do this by limiting themselves to observing, and, significantly, without applying judgment.
Axel Hoffer, M.D., Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Address correspondence to Axel Hoffer, 14 Welland Road, Brookline, MA 02445, USA.
HOFFER
This commonality between Buddhist meditation and psychoanalysis, importantly including neutrality, is both fundamental and striking. Of course, there are significant differences between psychoanalysis and Buddhist meditation. The most relevant difference is that in meditation, the meditator immediately lets go of the thoughts whereas in psychoanalysis the analyst holds on to some of the associations in order to ask for clarification or to make an interpretation. The analyst has access to the counterpart of free association, namely countertransference, as both techniques depend on keen attention to each thought, image, sensation and feeling that comes to mind. Adding attention to the body and breath through meditation is most salutary for psychoanalysis because it provides important clues to countertransfe
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