Clinical experience with patients with disturbances of subject/object discrimination and affectivity, in whom serious temporal disturbances are observed, leads to various hypotheses concerning: (a) The relationship between temporality and subject/object discrimination. (b) The effect of alterations of these functions on the transference. (c) The defensive function of alterations of temporality.

After a review of the relevant theoretical concepts, clinical material is presented for evaluation of these hypotheses; a patient with predominantly narcissistic pathology stops and freezes time so as to protect himself from contact with the other and with his own emotions, which are experienced as a threat of destruction; this patient's temporality is compared with that of a neurotic patient.