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The concept of Kairos, as used by Kielholz1, Ellenberger2, and Kelman3, carries us “beyond the purview of psychoanalysis, Freudian or neo-Freudian, and indeed beyond the domain of the behavioral sciences and the scientific method itself. It may well be that part of its appeal derives from this very fact: from the broad cosmological vistas opened up by it; from its rich associations with both our classical Western heritage and with ancient wisdom of the east. It certainly raises a challenge to the materialistic position of our day—and it seems to do so at a “favorable moment” in history.
It is wholly consistent with this tradition that the concept of kairos is left ambiguous, ill-defined, albeit pregnant with meaning. It is described as a moment outside measurable time and space, pertaining to “ultimate spirituality”; as a privileged or peak experience, conducive to what Kelman has termed “communing.”4 It is viewed as a critical turn of events, transcending what is subsumed under the concepts of transference and counter-transference or the “encounter.” It is “one and all things,” as Kelman put it.
But even if kairos seems to transcend the sharply defined conceptual tools of western science, we must nevertheless try to go beyond its appealing metaphorical, semi-mythological content and elucidate the dynamic forces and interpersonal configurations which are instrumental in making it therapeutically effective. We must seek to understand its psychodynamics.
The fact is that the vicissitudes of the original Hippocratic or theological term are characteristic of the major and minor pendulum swings of ideas which mark the history of psychotherapy. The “favorable moment” that comes to pass in the “fullness of time” is largely in the laps of the gods. It cannot be called forth by an act of will. It may come about through a stroke of luck, through a concatenation of external circumstances beyond the person's control. It is determined by his horoscope; by astral constellations; by