Through a description of the case of Maria, who entered analysis at the age of 5 because she was severely detached from reality and suffered from a profound apathy, I describe steps in the construction of the perception of time that could help facilitated her emotional growth. The subjective experience of self-in-time—an outcome of an emotional relationship with an object who cares—is an important aspect in building our perception of psychic reality. In severely disturbed, inaccessible children who are deeply retreated into a world of timelessness, the experience of self-in-time is often absent or distorted creating considerable difficulties for the evolution of the psychoanalytical treatment.