Inner Space and the Einsteinian Concept of Time

Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.

Albert Einstein

In a previous paper1 I described the associations of a young man in treatment and my interpretation of their meaning. He had described his early experience of separation in terms of the angry and devastating explosion of the original monolithic atom of the Universe. With time, though, he began to encounter the Universe as a bit more friendly, containing a number of good as well as bad objects, and sadness even became a feeling he could occasionally tolerate.

One day I reminded him of the approaching weekend break. His remarkable reply is the subject of this paper. His statement was exactly:

He did not feel like elaborating, but did explain its terms. The equation expressed the relativistic concept of time: “If the relative velocity (v) of two observers approaches the speed of light (c), it appears to each that the other's time processes are slowed down. Observer A reads his own time as t and Observer B's time as t‘.” He spoke this in a soft and clear voice and then fell sadly silent.

I think the patient was trying to say this: as he felt “enlightened” by treatment (approached the speed of light) he needed to invoke this equation to slow down the other observer's (my) time processes. It was essential to preserve time, saturate it, and thus slow my departure.

His only other association during that hour was “Something's moving,” a quotation remembered beneath a photograph of Albert Einstein—a feeling which while capturing the surprise and exhilaration of “moving ahead” barely concealed the fearful and lonely anticipation of separation.

In addition to a need to alter the concept of time, very often a patient also needs to modify the concept of space. As a person feels “enlightened” by