Arhive Number 3 - Cunoașterea Științifică

Jealousy represents a complex psychological phenomenon with a significant impact on an individual’s emotional and relational functioning, being considered a relevant indicator of personality organization. Beyond its immediate affective dimension, jealousy reflects the way early relational experiences, attachment styles, defensive mechanisms, and emotional regulation processes interact within the individual’s psychic structure. Persistent and maladaptive manifestations of jealousy may indicate structural vulnerabilities and difficulties in affective integration, whereas transient and adaptive forms are associated with secure attachment and mature defensive mechanisms. In this context, the analysis of jealousy provides an important perspective on personality organization and contributes to the development of psychotherapeutic interventions focused on mentalization, emotional regulation, and the strengthening of mature defense mechanisms.

This article undertakes a systematic re-evaluation of the conceptual and clinical distinction between the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis—an ethical commitment to honesty—and the technique of free association. It argues that their persistent conflation in psychoanalytic literature has engendered a critical ‘technical reductionism’, obscuring the relational-ethical foundation upon which transformative therapeutic work depends. The primary objectives are to: (1) establish a clear conceptual demarcation between the rule as a moral pact and association as a verbal practice; (2) critically analyse how classical reference works have perpetuated this confusion; (3) re-centre the fundamental rule as the indispensable ethical condition for analytic work; and (4) delineate the clinical implications of this recovery for contemporary practice, training, and theory.

Number 3

Free Association Between the Promise of Honesty and the Practice of Self-Disclosure: A Re-Evaluation of the Fundamental Rule in Psychoanalytic Therapies

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