An age-old technique, rediscovered by Breton in 1919. It became one of the methods employed by the Surrealists to gain access to subconscious thought and to explore the nature of lyricism and inspiration. They distinguished it from the automatic writing practised by spiritualist mediums, but it has connections with Freud's ‘free association’ (La pensée parlée). The basic idea was to write down quickly, without having a preconceived subject, whatever came into one's head. Breton was the ‘author’ of the most famous texts produced in this manner: Les Champs magnétiques (1920), in collaboration with Soupault, and Poisson soluble (1924).
[Keith Aspley]
