Define the forgetful functor , acting as the identity on underlying morphisms. Define the free algebra functor by
The monad laws make an algebra for a monad structure, and naturality of makes an monad algebra morphism.
For , define the transpose maps
The map is an monad algebra morphism, because naturality of and the algebra associativity law give
For , naturality of gives . Conversely, if is an monad algebra morphism, then
Precomposing by a map into or postcomposing by an monad algebra morphism respects both formulas. Thus the bijection is natural and . This is the free-forgetful Eilenberg-Moore adjunction.
Its adjunction unit is the given ; its adjunction counit at is the monad algebra morphism . Hence , and the induced multiplication is the underlying counit at , namely . Therefore this adjunction induces exactly the original monad, including its unit and multiplication of a monad.