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Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Vol. XV, 1946, No. 2.
In this paper the authors trace the connexion between infantile omnipotence and time perception. Interesting case material is given to illustrate the assumption that time perception comes into being as a result of frustrations directed against the child's feeling of omnipotence and that it belongs to the unconscious part of the Ego. Time and duty are therefore closely linked up with one another. Whenever phantasies of omnipotence find expression in adult patients normal time perception is disturbed.
The authors furthermore show how in phantasy and folklore the pleasure principle and timelessness are associated on the one hand and time and reality principle on the other hand. Differences in the reaction to time can be observed in primitive races and advanced cultures.