Jung’s word association test is one of the most interesting psychological tests, based on the idea that our unconscious can take control of the conscious will, in this way a word can evoke past trauma or give rise to the visibility of an unresolved internal conflict.
This instrument has been widely accepted for several decades and applied, in turn, in multiple contexts, however, it should be noted that it is a projective test, so, as such, and for exclusive use, it does not in itself have a reliable diagnostic value. It should be used in conjunction with other resources, tests and interviews to reach clearer and better conclusions.
- The word experience or proof of association was created in the mid-20th century by Carl Jung and had a very clear objective: to unravel the unconscious.
- To understand its manifestations and to provide adequate channels for reading.
- Understanding and.
- Finally.
- To highlight the problems that stand in the way of the freedom and well-being of the patient.
The technique couldn’t be simpler. The person receives a stimulating word to which he must respond with the first term that comes to mind. It is understood that these stimulus concepts generally cause a specific emotional burden.
On the other hand, the therapist should also read the physical and emotional responses that he will interpret after the test is finished with his 100 words. Likely, although this test is more than a century old, neuroscience has found evidence to support its premise.
At first glance, it may seem like a game: someone says one word and the other answers the first thing that comes to mind, but behind this dynamic is not only the word mentioned, you also have to interpret the physiological reaction. Jung’s word association test is based on a broad theoretical framework worth living on.
Carl Gustav Jung worked early in his career at the Burgh-lzli Psychiatric Clinic at the University of Zurich, under the direction of Eugen Bleuler, remember that this figure played a key role in solving many of the concepts we use in the field today. clinical psychology and psychiatry.
In this context, Jung began to study the processes that accompany trauma and complexities, according to him, one way to understand and highlight them was sleep, active imagination or fantasy, and in the day-to-day life with patients he noticed that certain words and phrases acted. as stimuli of the unconscious.
One way to incentivize this activation, to come into contact with the psychic universe of trauma, fears and conflicts, was to evoke a set of keywords. To test this theory, he invented the Word Association Test (WAT) or Jung’s word associations.
First, what Jung himself has made clear is that this test is not useful to everyone, there will be those who resist too much, those who do not take the test seriously and those who do not have proper use of language (whether because of age, understanding or other neurological problems, developmental deficit, etc. ).
Carl Jung realized that this instrument was very suitable for use in family groups, it was possible to observe similar response patterns, identifying the source of multiple problems.
However, Jung himself abandoned this instrument and his interest in the experimental field of psychiatry some time later, his theories about the collective unconscious or archetypes will arrive, however, this test continued to be applied until its use decreased significantly in 2005. it is only used in junguiana therapy programs and as a complementary projective technique in certain therapeutic processes.
In 2013, Dr. Leon Petchkowsky conducted an interesting study on the subject. He demonstrated by magnetic resonance imaging how Jung’s test words generated very revealing neurological responses in humans. In response to words such as father, family, abuse, fear, son, etc. , mirror neurons were activated.
There was also activity in areas such as the amygdala, insula or hippocampus, etc. The results were also very impressive in people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
All this serves to show how words evoke emotions, memories and fragments that we often prefer not to consider, so while Jung’s word association test continues to receive criticism, it remains an interesting resource supported by several studies.