Free association has been at the heart of the analytic process for decades, though nowadays the work with borderline and psychotic mental functioning has become more common. We discuss and compare contributions from the Kleinian and the French psychoanalytic models regarding the role of free association and the analyst when working with these disorders. Drawing on case material, we suggest a broader conceptualization of free association--free associative activities--which encompasses communications that cannot be expressed through verbal modes because of their primitiveness. Their working through in the analytic couple could allow a first representation of unsymbolized early psychic traumas.