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Gentile has built upon Bergson's (2001) concept that the distinct experience of time is a function of duration and affect. The subjective rhythm and duration of time (i.e. an internal sense of going on being, [Bergson 2001]) is formed in infancy through relational intervals of feeding, holding, playing, etc. that create interior holding spaces (Winnicott 1971). This enables us to develop the ability to self-regulate. Assimilating an internal framework that can hold experiences involving affect offers a means for managing psychological discomfort. When we recognize that intervals of negative feeling will eventually end, we are able to ‘go on being’ (p. 269).
The interior psychic space that develops through experiencing intervals of rhythmic time provides the mental capability to move between various points in temporal time, in making meaning of our experience. Our sense of agency and the way we interpret events is a nonlinear, multi-layered process of association that requires interior space to move around in.
A sense of nonlinear continuity occurs in settings involving social interaction through conceptualizing potential ‘ifs than thens’ (Beebe et al. 2012). The ability to self-regulate increases through holding the tension of duration in a temporal distinction of past, present and future. This process offers the opportunity for faith to emerge, along with the capacity for symbolization and meaningful, nonlinear representation.
Gentile argues that placing too much emphasis on individualizing and self-regulating our experience may limit our ability to keep in mind that affect emerges within the context of relationship. Time is better understood using the concept of duration because it is open-ended rather than contained