Most importantly, Burroughs is introduced to the technique of free association and the exploration
of the riches of the unconscious. I argue that he develops
own techniques that result from free
association and the unconscious,
in particular his literary technique of
mosaic construction. Burroughs in mental
distress: The symptoms that drove Burroughs into therapy include the following:
One: he felt disembodied. In an interview with Charles Ruas, Burroughs admits that he felt
"...divorced from his body from the
age of 17 to 23 as a result of his
suppression of his homosexuality. Two:
Miggy, who later married Burroughs' brother, Mort,
remembers him in childhood as "...withdrawn, unable to make friends, living in a dream world." (Morgan 32)
Burroughs also felt alienated from his peer group at school and university.
It was only when he became an addict that he achieved the identity of an outlaw
about which he had fantasized since reading Jack Black's "You Can't Win."
Three: Burroughs formed an hysterical attachment to his nanny, Mary Evans, such that he could hear "the dark
mutterings of a servant underworld."
When he was four, Mary took him out to the countryside with her boyfriend where something unspeakable
happened, probably of a sexual nature. Four: Burroughs suffered from bad parenting, at the very least,
because his mother and father could not respond in an adequate way to attempts by their son to communicate
the emotional upheaval caused by such events as the abuse by Mary and her boyfriend.
Freud and his Couch:
Burroughs studied the theories of Freud (CMB 135) and underwent analysis in New York in the late 1930s and
early 1940s after various personal tragedies. His first analysis was with Dr. Herbert Wiggers,
a committed and traditional Freudian. Burroughs' mental health issues culminated
in his chopping off the tip of his
little finger after a row with his first
boyfriend Jack Anderson. Dr. Wiggers placed Burroughs in Bellevue Hospital, from where he transferred to 
Payne Whitney Hospital. He was diagnosed as suffering from dementia praecox, catatonic type.
In layman's terms, Dr. Wiggers diagnosed Burroughs as rendering himself vulnerable to contempt and betrayal
by those he loved and Dr. Wiggers maintened that these feelings led Burroughs to self-harm and might,
in the future, lead him to attempt suicide. As it turned out, it led him to heroin.
Second Analysis: Dr. Paul Federn.
Burroughs entered a second phase of analysis after the murder of David Kammerer by Lucien Carr, two of Bill's
peer group. Dr. Federn had been vice president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society before moving to New
York. He possessed "patricidal eyes" and argued against one major tenet of traditional Freudianism.
He maintained that it was a lack, rather than a surplus, of narcissistic libido that caused poor mental health.
He also had a belief in telepathy between patients and himself, recording thirteen hundred instances (CMB 114).
From Dr. Federn, Burroughs may well have adapted the idea of telepathy between therepand and therapist to
telepathy between people in general, and the reverse direction of mind reading
in the Prof in the campus of Interzone University in Naked Lunch (NL 74).
Dr. Federn's policy was to build up, rather than break down, a patient's defensive mechanisms.
Nevertheless, Federn attempted to have Burroughs disclose the nature of the incident with Mary Evans
and her boyfriend that so troubled
his patient. Burroughs was unable to 
elucidate the event and became
disenchanted with Federn's therapeutic
technique. Truth Drug:
Third Analysis: Dr. Lewis Wolberg.
Burroughs transferred to the practice of Dr. Lewis Wolberg, who was a hypnoanalyst specializing
in restoring hidden memories. Dr. Wolberg administered
sodium pentathol to a patient who would
then reveal his secrets. For Burroughs,
the treatment released various alter
egos stored in his unconscious, including
a Southern gentleman, an English
aristocrat, and a black man. He talked in
strange accents and mimicked various
people. As a cure the treatment was a
failure, and Burroughs gave up analysis.
As part of his artistic development, the
treatment may have encouraged his faith
in his performance and literary use of
the routine, a past time that he enjoyed
with his friends. 
The Importance of Freudianism to Burroughs as a Writer:
The importance of Burroughs' therapeutic and theoretical knowledge of Freudianism is multifarious.
Firstly, Burroughs makes explicit use of Freudian concepts such as the superego,
the id and so on in his writing, for example, in the "Appendix to the Soft Machine (1968)." 
Secondly,  many of the other concepts that Burroughs uses are traceable to Freudian concerns, for example,
control, homosexuality and repression. Thirdly, much of Burroughs' writing lends itself to a Freudian interpretation.
Fourthly, he uses literary techniques that are influenced by Freudian theory. Automatic writing, cut-ups, and the
use of dream material are all techniques related to free association, whereby the conscious part of the mind is
bypassed and the unconscious is trawled directly. 
Burroughs' repetition technique, which is employed in "Naked Lunch" and "Soft Machine" can also be regarded in this light.
In general, Burroughs leans towards the radical and the execrable which suggests that he is able to pick through
the garbage from his id for diamonds in a way that the non-therepand cannot. For the remainder of this
presentation, I shall focus on the most innovative literary technique of Burroughs that I believe is influenced
by Freudianism: Mosaic Construction.
According to Burroughs, there is mosaic construction at the level of meaning (1) and at the level of 
ordering text (2): (1): The word cannot be expressed direct...It can perhaps be indicated by mosaic of
juxtaposition like articles abandoned in a hotel drawer, defined by negatives and absence (NL 97).
(2): [S]election of chapters...form a sort of mosaic with the cryptic significance of juxtaposition, like objects
abandoned in a hotel drawer, a form of still life (Letters 288-289). Mosaic Construction -- Example:
An important image employed in both quotations is that of things "abandoned in a hotel drawer." They are there
because the owner or owners needed them at some point, but they have chucked them into a drawer and
forgotten about them and left them there when they quit the hotel. Perhaps, it is a reference to the Beat Hotel
where any of the guests could add anything they liked to the word bank that Burroughs stored in his head and on
paper. At some point Burroughs would open the drawer and take a look at what was inside. Or maybe it is an
image of the unconscious where forgotten items like the details of the Mary Evans incident are retained until
the drawer is opened. In his book "Mosaic of Juxtaposition," Michael Bolton expounds the procedural
claim (2) as a method for "developing narrative by creating networks of images, characters, themes, and
events that are not causally related but connect through their associations and juxtapositions.
Bolton holds that the concept of mosaic construction finds post hoc validity in an argument of Deleuze and 
Guattari, which states that "every sign refers to another sign, and only to another sign, ad infinitum" therefore
"all signs are signs of signs." Bolton's methodological claim appears seductive in the light of the structure,
or anti-structure, of "Naked Lunch, but falters since it depends on the term "narrative" being fixed,
and narrative is the very phenomenon that "Naked Lunch" undermines. Another problem arises because
Bolton commits a category error. The Deleuze and Guattari argument relates to the meaning of language in
terms of the single sign. Bolton takes their argument as against the ordering of pieces of text, which is a
different matter. Bolton would have done better to use the Deleuze and Guattari argument with regard to
Burroughs' theory of meaning. Furthermore, Bolton commits the logical error of circularity when he explains
what Burroughs means by "juxtaposition" by using the same term, namely, "juxtaposition" to elucidate it.
No illumination follows. He needs to define the term "juxtaposition" in this context, which he fails to do.
However, Bolton is insightful in drawing attention to a unique creative strategy and in seeing the anti-structure
of "Naked Lunch" as a serious challenge to the essential role of plot in the novel, as traditionally understood.
Although Bolton does not make this point explicitly, it is worth noting the resultant contradiction between the
absence of causality between events in mosaic construction and the causality between events in the
traditional novel as espoused by E.M. Forster, the champion of fiction writing orthodoxy.
Forster writes in "Aspects of the Novel": "...a story is a narrative of events arranged in their time sequence.
A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. 'The king died and then the queen died,'
is a story. 'The king died, and then the queen died of grief,' is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the
sense of causality overshadows it." Since Bolton describes the narrative of "Naked Lunch" as comprising
"networks of...events not causally related," he would read Burroughs as subverting Forster's view. In addition,
Bolton emphasizes the responsibility of the reader of "Naked Lunch" to "make connections and establish
patterns" where the reader is a partner with the author in the creation of narrative meaning. Using a pair of
terms beloved by Burroughs, a text requires cooperation between the sender and the receiver.
The Experience of Reading "Naked Lunch":
The concept of mosaic construction can be developed further when it is understood that Burroughs reinvents
the reading process as well as requiring an alternative basis of interpretation. In "William Burroughs and the
Secret of Fascination," Oliver Harris argues for an experiential thesis concerning the unique act of reading
"Naked Lunch." This experience involves being overwhelmed by the text whether the reader finds
it repellent, salacious or delicious. As Burroughs remarks, the reader encounters "a frozen
moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork." (NL 199). This comment suggests that the reader's
engagement with "Naked Lunch" includes a visual element since the reader "sees" what he is about to stick
into his mouth. Given that the contents of the book is a kind of meal, a naked lunch, the overall experience
of the text is better thought of as an ingestion of words than as a purely mental exercise, which Bolton considers
it to be. Employing prandial terminology, the reader swallows what is on the end of the fork. In Freudian
terms, the reader introjects the words.
The Ancient Mariner: 
A positive clue for reading Burrough's intention in psychoanalytic terms is given by the Prof in "campus of
interzone university" where he expounds Coleridge and his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (NL72, 73-74). 
I suggest that just as Burroughs, if viewed as speaking through the Prof, 
conceptualizes the relationship between the Ancient Mariner (sender) and the Wedding Guest (receiver)
so Burroughs conceptualizes the relationship between the narrator of Naked Lunch and the reader.
The Prof remarks that, [the Ancient Mariner] does not...stop just anybody thereby inflicting 
unsent-for boredom and working random hardship...He stops those who cannot choose but hear owing to
already existing relation between The Mariner (however ancient) and the Wedding Guest.
What the Mariner actually says is not important...He may be rambling, irrelevant, even crude and rampant senile.
But something happens to the Wedding Guest like happens in psychoanalysis when it happens if it happens (NL 73-74).
The Prof, by way of illustration, adduces the case of an analyst who does all the talking in a therapeutic session
while the patient listens, taking in not what is said by the analyst but what is revealed from his unconscious: 
"Nothing can ever be accomplished on the verbal level...
...the analyst was not reading the mind of the patient, the patient was reading his mind,
that is the patient has ESP awareness of
the analyst's dreams and schemes whereas
the analyst contacts the patient
strictly from front brain. According to
the penultimate quotation the reader of
Naked Lunch is compelled to pour through
the text since "cannot choose but
do so." This compulsion is determined by
an unconscious mechanism that is
triggered when the text is read. Please
Note that the concepts of compulsion are
conscious mechanism and trigger are
Freudian in origin. Moreover, not
everybody qualifies for the resultant
relationship between narrator and reader. Once under way, the reading experience
parallels the reversed form of
psychoanalysis outlined in the ultimate
quotation where the verbal level of
communication has nugatory value. Instead
of the usual linguistic transmission
expected of reading something
"happens to the reader" akin to projective
identification, a process in which the
patient experiences the unconscious of the analyst through
"awareness of the analyst's dreams and
schemes." Burroughs is the analyst and the
reader is the patient. Nothing could be
more dream and scheme-like than the
contents of Naked Lunch. I've
outlined versus education in Freudianism,
well, very minimally--and the three
analyses that he undertook engendered by
his mental health issues that presented
during his adolescence and young
adulthood. I've alluded to the Freudian approach
with a Burroughsian spin that can be traced to much of his textural output. This 
includes the use of Freudian concepts
explicitly and implicitly and the
adaptation of the technique of free
association to some of his literary
techniques. In particular are focused on
mosaic construction and delineated its
direct challenge to traditional novel
writing where causation between story
events is considered to be fundamental
to plot. More work can be done on the
other literary techniques of Burroughs
that are influenced by Freudianism and
mention might have been made of
Burroughs' rejection of Freudianism
however I do not think that this alters
the influence that this school of
thought had on him
consciously and unconsciously. Thank you.
