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This theoretical paper takes as its starting point a question posed by Alvarez: ‘how does a sense of a durable object get built up?’. The paper considers one dimension of the earliest processes of post-natal primitive psychic life and organisation, relevant to Alvarez’s question: the formation and development, at a micro level, of an internal sense of duration of object and self, leading to a sense of continuation and continuity; and how over time this in turn forms a foundation for the experience of ‘going on being’ and sense of self. Sander’s concept of ‘organized states of consciousness’ in earliest post-natal life is drawn on to elucidate the prerequisite for the development of a sense of duration. The role and significance of ‘biorhythmicity’ and rhythm in infancy are discussed, in relation to the development of a sense of duration. The development of a sense of duration is in turn linked to the development of a sense of time. Observational material from an Emotional State Assessment of a Looked After infant in foster care, and clinical material from the four times weekly individual psychotherapy of a Looked After two-year-old, are used to illustrate the development of a sense of duration.