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Word association

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[[Word ]] [[association ]] is connected with the [[work ]] that Carl Gustav [[Jung ]] was engaged in at the Burghölzli [[Psychiatric ]] [[Clinic ]] of the [[University ]] of Zurich in the early [[stages ]] of his career (Jung, 1917/1926/1943). Under the directorship of Eugen Bleuler, the Burghölzli Psychiatric Clinic was an international center of excellence in psychiatric research at the turn of the century. Jung became director of research on the Word Association [[Test]]. This test usually consisted of a hundred stimulus [[words ]] that were read out singly to a [[subject ]] who was to "answer as quickly as possible with the first word that occurs to you." The reaction [[time]], [[verbal ]] response, and test [[behavior ]] were recorded and [[analyzed]]. Verbal responses were classified according to several [[linguistic ]] [[categories]]. The test was used to [[diagnose ]] [[psychological ]] typology and [[psychopathology]].
The Word Association Test (WAT) was based on earlier theories of the associationism [[school ]] of [[psychology]], which studied the laws of [[mental ]] [[associations]].
Jung introduced significant innovations to this method. In addition to the cognitive dimensions, he emphasized the emotional aspects involved. He noted that the words to which [[subjects ]] offered unusual responses were connected with themes having an emotional impact on [[them]]. He found that subjects invariably do not have [[conscious ]] [[control ]] over their responses. Therefore, he argued, this method was tapping both conscious and [[unconscious ]] phenomena. He found that clusters of [[ideas]], [[images]], and words loaded with much [[affect ]] (positive or [[negative]]) interfered with the ego (as the coordinating [[agency]]) by producing unusual responses. He called these clusters [[complexes]]. Jung used [[Freud]]'s theories of [[repression ]] to account for the [[autonomous ]] [[nature ]] of complexes. Freud praised Jung for providing experimental proof of the [[existence ]] of the unconscious, welcoming him in the early [[psychoanalytic ]] movement as a much needed hard-nosed [[scientist]]. Although the term [[complex ]] was used by Freud and Josef [[Breuer ]] earlier, it was with Jung's [[meaning ]] that it finally entered the psychoanalytic [[vocabulary]].
Jung and his associates applied the Word Association Test to many psychiatric contexts, including forensic diagnoses, publishing some remarkable cases of successful detection. A much-neglected facet of Jung's early work is his application of this method to families. He gave the test to members of the same families and found that there were psychological subgroupings in the same [[family]]. At the time, however, Jung possessed neither the [[theoretical ]] [[understanding ]] nor the [[clinical ]] [[experience ]] to take these findings further. One can argue that these unfinished questions contributed to the [[development ]] of his theories [[about ]] [[other ]] manifestations of shared unconscious [[structures ]] in subjects, for example, the archetypes (Papadopoulos, 1996).
Gradually, Jung abandoned this method and the [[whole ]] experimental approach to [[psychiatry]], especially after leaving the Burghölzli Psychiatric Clinic. Nonetheless, his method of amplification (instead of [[free association]]) and his sensitivity to the [[role ]] of [[language ]] in [[psychotherapy ]] owe their origin to the Word Association Test. As of 2005, the Word Association Test is hardly used, though it is taught in some Jungian [[training ]] programs and some [[analysts ]] use it as a [[technique ]] to enhance the therapeutic [[process ]] (Hill, 1975).
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