Problems related to the uses and meanings of time to a young woman who suffered from chronic lateness have been discussed. The time difficulties have been traced to the unpredictable alternation of overstimulation and abandonment in the early relationship to her mother. By denying the impingment of time, she could regressively revive fantasies of fusion with the mother of the first oral stage, and simultaneously ward off repetition of early separation traumata and intense oral-sadistic instinctual representations. The resultant ego distortions, especially in object relationships, and as reflected in the analytic transference, have been examined.