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The problem of time has intrigued the human mind since antiquity, inspiring some of humankind's most profound thoughts. Time is the weft on which our existence is woven. Indeed, we might go so far as to say that both are made of the same material. Time is precious. It is measured in smaller and smaller units and its value assessed with increasing precision. Psychoanalysis, often charged with the investigation of extremely rare psychic phenomena, has neglected the problem of time. This may be because the discipline has considered the notion to be too loaded with abstract implications and lacking in clinical applications. This article will not address theoretical matters but will concentrate on technical aspects of the issue, while keeping an attentive eye on the differences between Freudian and interpersonal procedures.
The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus held that the world was in eternal flux. Parmenides and Zeno were of the opinion that time and movement were mere illusions, and that only existence and stability were real. Plato overcame this antithesis, referring to time as a mobile image of eternity. He developed a dualistic theory of being and time in which the two coexisted. It was Aristotle (1947) who defined time as something in motion between a before and an after. Once he recognized the directional nature of time, he then went on to study the possibility of measuring it. These are among Western civilization's first steps toward an understanding of the phenomenon. There followed an almost infinite sequence of philosophical, mathematical, and physical reflections and speculations, focusing not so much on the human being as such as on the duration of life—for the individual or humankind—on Earth. In the 4th century, Saint Augustine (1967) shifted the emphasis from explanation to perception, stating that he knew what time was but was unable to explain it.
From that point on theorists of time have rarely come to an agreement, except on the unanimously shared