Free Association and its Discontents:  A Controversial Discussion

The Maurice Burke Paper Prize (1)

Psychoanalysis positions itself as a psychology of liberation in its enshrinement of free association as its “fundamental” rule.  Any other parameters that exist – conventions of time, payment and the like – have been created in order to protect a space in which the analysand is free to speak – and thus think – anything.  It is a singular space in which thought and speech have been described as having no direct “social consequences(2),” no direct implications for immediate  action, and thus it can allow for new possibilities in living.  To fulfill that function, Freud and others have noted, any externally-imposed limits on this freedom threaten the work as a whole.(3)  

Yet in the external world, the line between speech and action has perhaps never been less clear, as “hate speech” has spawned authoritarian social movements that collapse meaning into social oppression, and as the ramifications of limits to speech in the name of protecting vulnerability and diversity are also being reconsidered.  Thus the psychoanalytic conundrum of “free speech” is amplified, leading to myriad dilemmas, which submissions are invited to address, such as:

• What are the areas of overlap and divergence between "free association" and "free speech?"
• What can be spoken in the consulting room?  How much is too much?  Can there be "too much?"
• What are the clinical consequences of free speech/free association, its therapeutic actions? 
• What are the social consequences of placing limits on what can be thought and said, or of not doing so? 
• How do limits on speech constrain thought, or even, alternatively, allow for its possibility?  
• What are the implications of the psychoanalytic experiment for our efforts to speak to the political and social catastrophes we are currently facing?

Submissions in any form are invited, but written submissions should be no more than 15 pages in length.  A prize of $100, publication on the CCP website, an opportunity to present their papers to the CCP community, and a commemorative plaque will be awarded in each of three categories:(4)

Members of the general public

Members of the CCP Community

Students and Early Careers Professionals (3 years or less post-licensure)

Deadline for submissions is December  31, 2024 and winners will be announced February 1, 2025. Please specify under which of the three categories you are applying.  You can submit your work here: paperprize@ccpsa.org

1. Maurice Burke was a founder, board member and twice president of CCP.  
2. John Friedman, personal communication
3. “It is very remarkable how the whole task becomes impossible if a reservation is allowed at any single place.  But we have only to reflect what would happen if the right of asylum existed at any one point in a town; how long would it be before all the riff-raff of the town had collected there?” (Freud, XII: 136-7)
4. Decisions of the judges will be final, and CCP reserves the right not to award a prize in a given year.