The time Dimension and its Relationship to the Analytic Process

Human beings seem to have a need for transcendence. The present is examined in light of the past to build our biographical identity, the essence of the continuity of our person in time. Renunciation, being fundamental to the achievement of psychic maturity, is related to leaving something behind and accepting the passing of time and the impossibility of controlling the future. But is it enough? No; renunciation is not enough; we need something more. In psychoanalysis, this can be defined as facilitating a space to play or a space of illusion in our own lives. In therapy, analysands perform a core task basically related to time. They remember the past to then abandon and renounce it. In addition, they forfeit control over the future. In addition, a space of illusion to push them beyond mere renunciation is also required a space for playing, and therefore also for encounter. Analysands pretend that life and therapy can be eternal, that the therapist will always be there, that they can fully possess the analyst, that they can be everything to him. It is an “as if” space that, far from representing a distancing from reality, implies when carried out in full an act of devotion and commitment by both participants in the analysis.