PSYCHOANALYTIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE PHENOMENON OF TIME IN PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC PRACTICE

Abstract

Understanding the concept and phenomenon of time is an important component of forming the professional identity of a psychoanalyst, as well as improving his skill and ability to understand psychoanalytic contents in the temporal dimension. The purpose of this article is to highlight the results of the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of time in psychoanalytic practice, to clarify the meaning of time as a component of the setting of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, which both limits and protects the therapeutic process, to define individual time dimensions (“layers of time”) in psychoanalytic practice. This study was conducted by reflecting on the practical experience of a psychoanalyst through the lens of phenomenology of time based on a brief overview of the understanding of time in various philosophical traditions. Based on the conceptualization of time as a flow of events, four types of events that can occur within the psychoanalytic session and outside it are considered: “thought events”, “non-thought events”, “thought non-events” and “non-thought non-events”. The article details which phenomena of the psychoanalytic process can be attributed to each of the named types of events. It is proposed to consider the concept of “psychoanalytic time” as a combination of separate temporal layers: “conscious time” (filled with thought events), “preconscious time” (filled with non-thought events and thought non-events) and “subconscious time” (filled with non-thought non-events), which are characteristic of both the psychoanalyst and the client. Experiencing of these different layers of time by the analyst and the analysand is not always synchronized, but instead can proceed as separate, autonomous and even opposed. This way of seeing and conceptualizing the psychoanalytic process in terms of the passage of time creates a theoretical framework for the containment of the analyst’s feelings, gives him an additional opportunity to formulate correct interventions, endure moments of “times desynchronization” and ecologically preserve a professional position.