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Vol. 44 No. 2 (2024)
Revista Portuguesa de Psicanálise

Clínicas

The Birth of the Sense of Time: From Reflexive Order to Symbolic Order

https://doi.org/10.51356/rpp.442a3

Published 2024-12-31

  • Ana Dias

Ana Dias
Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicologia

Abstract

Time constitutes one of the organizers of the mind. How does the sense of time evolve from the first proto-mental formations to the consciousness of time? The phenomenological-existential perspective of time, the cyclical dimension and temporality of physiological processes are linked to the rhythmic nature of early inter-corporeality, giving rise to experiences that are only possible in the course of time and are organized into increasingly complex units. Various dimensions of the relationship to time are explored — chronological time, subjective time, temporality, temporalization, historicization, and progression. The precursors of the sense of time are organized from the archaic levels of psychic functioning, the body — the stage for physiological phenomena — to the pre-verbal modalities of communication and symbolic order that give rise to consciousness of time. The early contributions of Freud and the work of André Green are highlighted. Psychopathology is a privileged source of indirect observations that can help to reconstruct the developmental path of the sense of time. From psychopathological phenomenology to the similarities between Heidegger’s philosophical language and André Green’s psychoanalytic discourses, we end with clinical vignettes from clinical work with adult patients, making use of concepts of associative reverberation, heralding anticipation, associative irradiation, and movement.

Keywords

time, sense of time, phenomenology, reality principle, psychopatology

PDF (Português)

Author Biography

Ana Dias

Mestre em Psicologia Clínica pela Universidade de Lisboa. Psicoterapeuta e Psicanalista; Membro Associado da Sociedade Portuguesa de Psicanálise (SPP) e da Associação Psicanalítica Internacional (IPA).

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