Analytic time

"Analytic time" refers to the unique qualities of the patient's experience of time in the context of treatment. Transference regression revives earlier developmental levels of temporal awareness, especially its intimate connections with separation experiences within the symbiotic dyad. Analytic time also alludes to the clinical observation that significant childhood events, such as the birth of a sibling, sometimes come to the fore when the "age" of the analysis matches the child's age when the event took place. Analytic time refers as well to other temporal aspects of treatment, onto which unconscious conflicts and fantasies can be displaced. The temporal structure of each session can evoke the same associations as does the temporal structure of the entire analysis. Recognition of the various possible meanings of the time structure of treatment may play a useful role in formulating reconstructions. Analytic time is one important component of the analytic frame. As such, its importance can easily be overlooked when the analyst becomes preoccupied with content, and ignores the more silent aspects of treatment.