Adam Phillips, "The Soul Of Man Under Psychoanalysis"

And it is perhaps incidentally of interest that Freud claimed to have got his idea of free-association as a therapeutic method from one of the favourite authors of his youth, Ludwig Borne. In 1823 Borne had written an essay entitled 'The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days', in which he wrote:

Take a few sheets of paper and for three days in succession write down, without any falsification or hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head. Write what you think of yourself, of your women, of the Turkish War, of Goethe... of the Last Judgement, of those senior to you in authority--and when the three days are over you will be amazed at what novel and startling thoughts have welled up in you. That is the art of becoming an original writer in three days.

Borne's list of what comes into one's mind is in itself revealing; free association is always a period piece.