The march of time: rigid or chaotic transactions, two different ways of living time

In this paper the author shows that families do not live time in the same way. In families with rigid transactions, time is arrested; in families with chaotic transactions time is eventful. These different ways of living time are true of all systems, and parallels are drawn with political systems. Therapists must thus manage the therapeutic time in different ways, and this depends, among other factors, on their "personal equation." To achieve this, some guidelines are given, and two techniques that we call photograms and historiograms are described.