The lengthening hour: time and the demise of psychoanalysis as therapy

Time is an under-researched area in the social sciences. Rationales concerning its use govern all forms of work activity. The case of psychoanalysis is considered as an example of a therapeutic enterprise that has foundered on its temporal recipes. The demand for shorter, sharper, faster therapeutic procedures is making analysis increasingly marginal as therapy. The writings of psychoanalysts from Freud to Lacan on time and analysis are considered and contrasted with more recent concepts of appropriate therapeutic temporal formats. It is suggested that the concept of faith as well as the unsuccessful search for an effective therapy need to be considered as explanations of psychoanalysis's inexorable lengthening.