1st Edition

Time and the Experience of Time Psychoanalysis in Dialogue with History and Science

Edited By Heribert Blass, Leopoldo Bleger, Joëlle Picard Copyright 2026
152 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

152 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

152 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

With particular reference to neurobiology and neuroscience, this book explores a psychoanalytic understanding of time and how ideas of time affect our experiences in clinical practice and in everyday life. The contributions examine new perspectives on numerous phenomena associated with the perception of time. In addition to the physics-based discussion of whether time and a now exist at all,... Read more

Preface 

Heribert Blass, Leopoldo Bleger, Joëlle Picard

1. On the EPF Symposium on Time April 9-10, 2022, and on the present book

    Heribert Blass

2. Science, Psychoanalysis and the Time of the Session

    Leopoldo Bleger

3. Neurobiology of Time

    Arnaldo Benini

4. Discussion of Arnaldo Benini’s paper: Neurobiology of Time

    Katy Bogliatto

5. What is Time? – Thoughts of a Physicist

    Gernot Münster

6. Discussion of Gernot Münster´s paper: What is Time? – Thoughts of a Physicist

    Charlotta Björklind

7. Encounters with Chronos

    François Hartog

8. Discussion of François Hartog´s paper: Encounters with Chronos

    Joëlle Picard

9. Kairos and Chronos. Clinical-psychoanalytical reflections on time

    Bernd Nissen

10. Discussion of Bernd Nissen´s paper: Kairos and Chronos. Clinical-psychoanalytical reflections on time

     Jasminka Šuljagić

11. The complexity of the dialogue between neurosciences and psychoanalysis. EPF-Symposium Berlin 2015: 'Psychoanalysis in 2025‘

      Jorge Canestri

12. Afterthoughts

     Leopoldo Bleger, Heribert Blass, and Joëlle Picard

Biography

Heribert Blass, Dr. med. (MD), is Training and Supervising Analyst for Adults, Children, and Adolescents; Specialist in Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Leopoldo Bleger, Dr. med. (MD), is Supervisor Analyst of the French Association of Psychoanalysis (AFP), France.

Joëlle Picard, Dr. med. (MD), is Psychiatrist and Training Analyst (Supervisor) in Paris, France.

"This book is a convincing example of how contemporary psychoanalysis is constantly continuing and revitalizing the Freudian tradition of innovative interdisciplinary dialogues. Particularly severely traumatized analysands feel thrown out of time, never really having arrived in their own life, without a sense of past, present and future. The “search for lost times” (A la recherche du temps perdu, Proust) in psychoanalysis becomes an existential experience for many of them. However: how can such central psychic transformations be understood from the perspective of today's neurosciences, modern physics, philosophy and history? The outstanding authors of this volume take the reader on a stimulating journey towards a deeper understanding of time as one of the basic categories of human life."

Prof. Dr. Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Psychoanalytic principal investigator of the MODE Study, recipient of the IPA’s Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award, 2023, Germany

"An extraordinary collection that bridges psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and other sciences, like physics and history, to illuminate the multiple experiences of time. Profoundly relevant for understanding temporality in clinical practice and theory. A major contribution to contemporary psychoanalytic thought." 

Dr. Jorge Eduardo Catelli, Psy.D., Full Member and Training Analyst of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, Argentina

"This volume is a fine literary achievement expressing the EPF spirit of dialogic exchange which arose in the Symposium on Time (2022). The chapters illustrate a creative crosspollination of inter-disciplinary thinking that evolved. The arguments are lively, compelling and generative. This book is sure to endure the test of time and become one of the classic EPF books."

Jan Abram, EPF President (2024 – 2028) and author of 'The Surviving Object: Psychoanalytic clinical essays on psychic survival-of-the-object (2022)' New Library of Psychoanalysis, Routledge, UK