AN important method of mental analysis is the use of the word-association test. * This follows the method of a simple psychological experiment already familiar to psychologists. A number of words, disconnected in meaning - such as "poker," "friend," "street," "tomato," "strength," - and so on, is read aloud to the patient. Each of these " stimulus " words will call up some associated idea in the hearer's mind. Usually, after a little practice, the length of time taken for one word to suggest another becomes a fairly regular period for a given individual, one to two seconds being quite a common interval. The interval between stimulus-word and response is called the reaction time. Sometimes, however, the stimulus-word takes a long time to produce another word; there is hesitation and even confusion, and the reaction time is very long. Now prolonged associations may occur with a normal individual and may indicate nothing of special interest in the unconscious, but possibly a plethora of competing associations, or the recall of some emotional experience. The prolonged associations, however, happen frequently in the case of patients suffering from some mental trouble, and, on further inquiry, have often been found to be connected with forgotten experiences of a disturbing emotional nature, which have been the original cause of the mental trouble.

Association Tests.

* First used by Jung for this purpose. See his Analytical Psychology, ch. ii.

Let me give an example of the actual use of this method, in a case described by a British doctor in my hearing. A few details were altered to avoid any possible recognition. One of his patients, a woman, was suffering from severe nervous breakdown. No one had been able to discover the cause or a means of cure. The doctor submitted the patient to a long word-association test. To nearly all the words she gave responses of ordinary length, but two words gave very prolonged reactions. One was "ship," and the other was "luggage." Luggage, after a prolonged pause, gave "porter." The patient could not give any reason why these words gave such prolonged reactions. The doctor asked her to go home, and let her mind dwell upon them and see what occurred. She came back a day or two afterwards in a state of great indignation. She accused the doctor of plotting to disturb her peace of mind, and said she had recalled, through the means he used, events which she had completely forgotten, and which had occurred before her marriage. It thus came to light that she had at that period passed through certain experiences which caused her intense mental distress. They were associated with an individual named Porter. The mental worry had been at its highest on her honeymoon journey on board ship. Upon that journey she had resolved to put these distressful thoughts out of her mind, and to try to forget them, and she had succeeded in suppressing entirely the memory of them. Nervous breakdown, however, had followed. By a lucky hit the doctor had included in his long lists of words two which were intimately connected with this experience, and had thus recalled it to her mind. It was possible for the mature mind of the woman to realise that she had really no cause for such intense mental trouble on account of the events referred to, and following this removal of the long repression of painful memories, the nervous debility gradually disappeared, and the patient was cured. The point of interest for us at present is that in this case, as in many others, it was reflection upon the words and responses accompanying a prolonged reaction which led to the recall of associated memories which had been buried in the unconscious.*

What is the course of prolonged word reaction in such a case? Let us approach the problem by studying it in a simpler case, in which the processes involved are largely conscious, and in which the reasons for delayed reactions can be clearly seen. So sensitive are these reaction times, even to slight emotional disturbances, that I have been able to use the test in the following way. From a company of friends two subjects + (in this case women) were selected, and left the room together. I then wrote on a piece of paper the following sentences, purposely made somewhat startling, or even impertinent:

"Your hair is turning grey over the left temple."

"You will be married on New Year's Day."

The Cause of Prolonged Reactions.

* Prolonged reactions are by no means the only type of response which gives a clue to buried complexes; others are referred to only incidentally, however, as it is not the intention of the writer to explain the method in order that it may be used by the reader, but merely that the essential psychological basis should be understood.

+ The term "subject" is commonly applied to a person upon whom a psychological experiment is carried out.

" Your husband's name will be George."

"You will die in Paris."

"There will be a gas explosion in your room at midnight."

This paper, folded up. I took to the two subjects. , They were asked to toss up as to who should read it when I had left them. I had previously asserted that I could certainly tell which of them had read the paper, and, before the tests which followed, they were encouraged to do their utmost to conceal the truth from me, and they agreed to do so. Shortly after my return to the company, the first of the two subjects (in alphabetical order) was called in. I then read over to her, one at a time, a list of commonplace words, in the midst of which I had inserted certain " critical " words, occurring in the sentences on the paper, such as "grey," "temple," "die," "Paris," "midnight," "gas," etc. Each subject was instructed to say the first word that came into her head as quickly as possible when I read a word. I noted down each word given in response, and the length of time taken to respond, this being measured by a stop-watch hidden from the person tested. I have performed this experiment some dozen times, and once or twice I have been doubtful as to the " guilty " person, but in every case I have finally selected her correctly, chiefly through prolonged reactions given to the critical words.