Free association is all we need?

This paper provides a commentary on Arnaud Rey’s (2024) paper, which is based on the hypothesis that neuronal functioning is essentially associationist in nature, and more broadly, on the theory of Unified Radical Associationism (URA). Such a theory aligns with psychoanalytic models where free association is considered the “fundamental rule”, as the patient associations are believed to reveal his or her psychological unconscious functioning. Free association can pertain to verbal language, but also to sensori-motor associativity (referred to as “formal associativity”) as well as group associativity, which accounts for associations between several peoples during a group. In a therapeutic setting, the ability of the patient to produce original associations — “associative generativity” — is also considered as being an essential marker of symbolization processes. Thus, clinicians could also recognize themselves in the principle proposed by Arnaud Rey that “free association is all we need,” and it is remarkable that disciplines with different methodologies arrive at the same general idea. Epistemological considerations regarding the relationships between psychological and neuronal associativity are proposed in conclusion, considerations that lead to broader questioning of what is commonly called the hard problem of consciousness.