APA Dictionary of Psychology

free-floating attention

Updated on 04/19/2018
in psychoanalysis and in other forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy, the analyst’s or therapist’s state of evenly suspended attention during the therapeutic session. This attention does not focus on any one thing the client says, but it allows the analyst or therapist to listen to all the material being presented and tune into the client’s affects and unconscious ideas. Also called evenly hovering attention.
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