In the first, the analyst receives the analysand’s chains of associations, not knowing where they might lead, listening to them with dreamlike attentiveness. He may remain silent for a long time until something in the analysand’s communications alerts him: a word with a special ring, maybe, or a link to a dream from yesterday or from several months ago. The analyst does not have to be overly explicit: he may simply repeat the word (what Bollas calls the ‘Freudian echo’) or point to the link in order to facilitate the process.
