["Spute dich, Kronos, fort den rasselnden Trott..." Reflections on time perception in the psychoanalytic process and...

Referring to Goethe's Poem "An Schwager Kronos", the author tries to establish a relationship between the experience of time as lived through in the course of the psychoanalytic process as well as of time as experienced under the impression of the possibly approaching end of one's life. Psychoanalytic theory, however, has only limited possibilities to grasp "time" in psycho-dynamic or psycho-symbolic terms. Nevertheless, the changes in the experience of time, which take place in the course of a lifetime, can often be worked through in a psychoanalytic process focussing on loss, "fear of breakdown" (Winnicott) and hope. This working through contributes to the internalisation of the holding environment, i.e. good inner "saving" objects provided by the therapist. Episodes from Mozart's "Last Year" are used as clinical illustrations.