Temporal Psychology and Psychotherapy. The Human Being in Time and Beyond
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Characteristics. Continuous reaction to the external stream of events; high mobility of attention and behaviour; life as a series of social rhythms.
Manifestations. Frequent contacts, high switchability, strong involvement with novelty.
Theoretical meaning. Personality is synchronized with the sociocultural tempo; with abrupt rhythm disruption – risk of burnout.
Psychotherapeutic task. Introducing practices of slowing, working on restoring biorhythms.
4.4. Extravert – Slowed (Traditional/Epochal Handwriting)
Characteristics. Life according to long external cycles (family rituals, professional traditions); stability, conservatism.
Manifestations. Attachment to traditions and rituals, consistent behavioural patterns.
Theoretical meaning. This handwriting provides general stability; yet when change is necessary, resistance arises.
Psychotherapeutic task. Gently fostering flexibility and openness to the new.
4.5. Rhythm-Sensitive Handwriting (Transversal Modifier)
Characteristics. Strong correlation of mental state with external cycles: daily, seasonal, lunar; sensitivity to light, changes of day, etc.
Theoretical meaning. Here the mechanism of handwriting is tightly intertwined with physiology; chrono-biological interventions promise high effectiveness.
4.6. Discrete / Digital Handwriting (Modern Modifier)
Characteristics. Temporal experience is cut into portions of activity: sessions, notifications, short windows of attention.
Theoretical meaning. The technological environment shapes a new handwriting; consequences include changes in deep integration of experience and attention.
4.7. Atemporal Handwriting
Characteristics. Tendency toward experiences that transcend linear temporal logic: peak states, mystical insights, transpersonal episodes.
Theoretical meaning. A source of meaning-making and creativity; without adequate supports – risk of disorientation. It requires careful therapeutic integration.
In practice, handwriting rarely fits neatly into a single cell of the matrix; more often we are dealing with a dominant pattern accompanied by several secondary features. The matrix provides working hypotheses that require empirical validation.
Ornament as the «External Signature» of Handwriting
5. Ornament as the «External Signature» of Handwriting – Hypothesis and Methodological Directions
Culture is not a neutral background: it codes rhythms, and ornament is one of the most evident forms of such coding. Ornament presents rhythm in visible form: repetition, interval, density, openness/closure of form. Hence a natural, tentative transition: if a personality has a stable handwriting, and if culture fixes rhythms, then ornament may carry traces of the handwriting of both individual and epoch.
Working hypothesis. Extraverted handwriting is more often expressed in open linear ornaments (waves, rows, flows), introverted – in closed, centripetal ornamental structures (circles, concentric compositions). Accelerated handwritings yield small, dense rhythms; slowed ones – large, «stretched» motifs.
Methodological paths for testing the hypothesis:
– Collecting a corpus of ornaments (ethnographic and contemporary design) and classifying formal characteristics (closed/open, density, rhythmicity, modularity).
– In parallel – psychological surveys and screening of temporal handwriting in creators / bearers of these ornaments.
– Statistical analysis of correlations: preference for forms ↔ handwriting indicators.
– Cross-cultural testing and contextual work: recognizing that ornament is culturally conditioned and may express a collective font rather than purely individual handwriting.
Ethical and methodological caveats.
Ornamental diagnostics is an auxiliary tool, not a substitute for clinical assessment. One cannot directly interpret a preferred pattern as a diagnosis; context, symbolism and tradition must be taken into account.
6. Theoretical and Empirical Implications: Directions for Further Work
The concept of temporal handwriting opens several avenues for research and practice:
– Cognitive-neurobiological correlates.
– Which neurophysiological parameters (HRV, cortisol profile, circadian markers) correlate with handwritings? One may expect clearly marked circadian patterns in rhythm-sensitive handwritings.
– Development and formation of handwriting.
– How do childhood, parenting modes, trauma, educational practices and cultural context shape handwriting? The role of epigenetics here is an important hypothesis.
– Clinical validation.
– Testing how well handwriting diagnostics predicts responses to specific interventions (chronotherapy, cognitive restructuring, mask-therapy).
– Cultural semiotics.
– Exploring ornamental and artistic manifestations of handwriting as part of cultural history.
7. Ethical, Clinical and Methodological Limits
– Avoid reductionism: handwriting is not a diagnosis but a description of rhythmic features.
– In the presence of severe pathology (psychosis, acute suicidality), avoid provocative projects without clinical preparation.
– When working with cultural symbols, maintain respect and avoid universalism (take local meanings of patterns into account).
– Any diagnostic procedure must be validated and aligned with ethical research standards.
8. Conclusions and Link to the Rest of the Book
Temporal handwriting is a central construct linking the philosophy of time with applied psychotherapy.
This chapter provides the conceptual foundation: handwriting is the signature of time in the psyche, formed by biorhythms, culture and archetypes.
Further on we will develop this idea: in the Appendix to Chapter 1 you will find a brief practical screening sheet; in Part II (especially Chapter 21) – the «Face of Personality» method and detailed mask-therapy techniques that use the notion of handwriting in practice.
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Literature and Commentary
The following list brings together the philosophical and psychological texts underlying the theoretical core of this chapter, as well as contemporary directions in empirical research on time. For further study of temporal handwriting, works on the phenomenology of consciousness, the cognitive neuroscience of time, chronobiology and the epigenetics of rhythms are recommended.
Bakhtin, M. M. – «Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel» (1937—1938)
Shows how artistic forms record temporal structures of experience; an example of ornamental and narrative coding of time in culture.
Bergson, H. – Matter and Memory (Matière et mémoire, 1896)
A foundational work on inner duration (durée); distinguishes phenomenological time from physical measurement.
Buonomano, D., & Eagleman, D. – The Brain and Time (2009)
Reviews neural mechanisms of time perception; demonstrates how the brain constructs duration and sequence.
Frankl, V. – Man’s Search for Meaning (1946)
Highlights the centrality of future orientation in human motivation; relevant for the projective dimension of temporal handwriting.
Freud, S. – The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung, 1900)
Explores how the past continues to live in the present; psychoanalysis as an «archaeology of time.»
Grof, S. – The Holotropic Mind (1992)
Empirical foundation on altered states and transpersonal experiences; essential for atemporal dimensions of the psyche.
Husserl, E. – On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1905)
A classic analysis of the lived «now,» retention and protention; foundational for temporal structure of consciousness.
Jung, C. G. – Psychological Types (1921); Synchronicity (1952)
Typology supporting the axes of temporal handwriting; synchronicity introducing supra-temporal connections.
Kleitman, N. – Sleep and Wakefulness (1939)
Classic research on sleep—wake biological rhythms; base for chrono-aspects of handwriting.
Kravchenko, S. A. – Temporal Psychology (2017); works on the «Face of Personality» (2020—2025)
Authorial corpus forming the methodological and clinical base of temporal psychotherapy.
Maslow, A. – Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences (1964)
Describes peak experiences as atemporal states with developmental significance.
Plato – Timaeus (c. 360 BCE)
Foundational concept of time as an «image of eternity»; philosophical basis for temporal categories.
Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. – «The Evolution of Foresight» (2007)
Evolutionary theory of mental time travel; highlights the unity of memory and imagination of the future.
Wittmann, M. – Felt Time (2016)
Neuropsychological study of subjective time; links temporal perception with emotional and bodily regulation.
Review studies on chronobiology and epigenetics (20th—21st centuries)
Show rhythmic inheritance and biological underpinnings of temporal organisation.
Chapter 2. The Anthropic Principle, the «Cosmic Human» and External Rhythms
Summary
The human being is not an abstract subject: we are rooted in a web of external rhythms – from the daily light—dark cycle to multi-year waves of solar activity and economic cycles. This chapter combines philosophical reflection (the anthropic principle, the metaphor of the «cosmic human») with an applied view: which levels of external rhythms have clinical and diagnostic significance for temporal psychology, how they can be tested, and how to treat cultural corpora (astrology, myth). The chapter stresses methodological caution: metaphors broaden our view, but empirical claims require rigorous testing.
Key Concepts
Anthropic principle (psychological reading) – the idea that the parameters of the world are «pre-tuned» in such a way that an observer can appear here; in a psychological reading, a working hypothesis about the attunement of the psyche to external rhythms.
Cosmic Human / Adam Kadmon – a metaphor of the unity of macrocosm and microcosm; phenomenologically rich and clinically usable as an image, but not empirically valid without testing.
External rhythms – cycles outside the individual: daily (circadian), lunar, seasonal, multi-year (solar activity), long-term historical/economic waves.
Zeitgebers – external «conductors» of biorhythms (light, social schedules, etc.); key to understanding why «biorhythms» are at once internal and externally relevant.
Methodological caution – distinguishing between metaphor, phenomenological corpus and testable hypothesis.
Aims of the Chapter
– To explain why discussion of external rhythms is important for temporal psychology.
– To describe five key levels of external rhythms relevant for clinical work and research.
– To provide recommendations for testing hypotheses about attunement between psyche and external rhythms.
– To clearly distinguish the cultural-symbolic domain (astrology, myth) from the empirical field of research.
Main Text
1. Philosophical Reflection: The Anthropic Principle and the «Cosmic Human»
In physics, the anthropic principle points out that the laws of the world are such that an observer is possible within it. A psychological reading of this idea is not a magical claim, but a way of posing the question: how do the properties of the surrounding world and its rhythms form the field in which the psyche arises and develops?
The metaphor of the «cosmic human» (Adam Kadmon and analogous images in different traditions) offers a rich phenomenological material: it fixes an intuition of the person’s co-belonging with the cosmos. But it is important to separate metaphor from empirical assertion: in science we put forward hypotheses about attunement and test them against data.
Here we immediately turn to a practical angle: external rhythms act as «addresses» for an extraverted temporal handwriting (people oriented toward external cycles tend to react more strongly to these rhythms), whereas an introverted handwriting is more oriented to inner temporal dimensions. This distinction is a working hypothesis, not a dogma.
Critical remark: always distinguish the context – philosophical (the metaphor of the «cosmic human») versus empirical (correlations between rhythms and mental state). Metaphor widens our view, but does not replace data.
2. Biorhythms as Both Internal and External
It is important to clarify: «biorhythms» are endogenous oscillators of the organism that are internally generated but entrained by external zeitgebers (light, temperature, social schedules). In other words, biorhythms are internal in origin but externally modulated; therefore the boundary between «internal» and «external» in rhythms is always relative. Contemporary work in circadian biology and its impact on health and mental functioning provides detailed support for this position.
3. Five Key Levels of External Rhythms
(clinical observations and verification)
Below is a working overview of levels useful for clinicians and researchers. For each, we sketch clinical observations and suggest avenues for verification.
3.1. Daily (Circadian) Rhythms
Phenomenon. The 24-hour organisation of sleep/wake, hormonal fluctuations and circadian patterns of activity.
Clinical picture. Variability of mood and performance across the day; morning apathy in depressed patients; suicidal and cardiac peaks in the early morning – clinically relevant markers.
Verification. Actigraphy, hormonal profiling, collecting time-stamped data on events (hospitalisations, cardiac episodes). Modern reviews highlight the major impact of the circadian system on health and immunity.
3.2. Monthly / Lunar Cycles
Phenomenon. The 29.5-day lunar cycle; historical beliefs about its connection with menstrual, behavioural and criminal patterns.
Clinical picture. Patients sometimes report insomnia or increased emotional lability during full moon; at the regional level some reports have described rises in emergency calls.
Verification. Prospective actigraphic and registry studies. There is robust prospective evidence for effects of lunar phase on sleep onset and duration, but meta-analytic reviews point to mixed findings and high sensitivity to methodology and sampling. Prospective registration and careful control of retrospective reporting are necessary.
3.3. Seasonal / Annual Rhythms
Phenomenon. Annual variations in day length, temperature and associated behavioural and biochemical shifts.
Clinical picture. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is the classic example; the efficacy of light therapy has been clinically demonstrated.
Verification. Clinical trials of light therapy; population-based studies of seasonal patterns in morbidity and birth rates.
3.4. Multi-year Cycles of Solar Activity (~11 years) and Geomagnetic Disturbances
Phenomenon. Cycles of solar activity, flare events and subsequent geomagnetic disturbances.
Clinical / societal picture. Retrospective analyses have found correlations between solar activity peaks and changes in acute medical utilisation, cardiac and psychiatric statistics; epidemiological work has shown associations between geomagnetic disturbances and increased mortality on some indicators.
Verification. Longitudinal multicentre studies that link satellite indices (Kp, sunspot number) with clinical registries. Existing studies show carefully derived associations, but the mechanism remains contested and requires replication.
3.5. Long Historical / Economic Waves
Phenomenon. Decades-long cycles in the economy, technological development and public mood (long-wave theories, Kondratiev and his successors).
Psychological significance. Mass temporality – collective expectations, perceived risks, readiness for innovation – generates societal scenarios that become embedded in individual life plans (career, family, migration).
Verification. Interdisciplinary studies combining historical data, sociological surveys and psycho-demographic measures. Methodologically this is a demanding but promising area.
Important caveat. Observed correlations at these levels do not equal proof of causality. Each association demands strict control for confounders and prospective registration.
4. Attitude Toward Astrology and Cultural Traditions
Astrological systems represent a large phenomenological corpus: centuries of observation, symbolism and interpretive technique. For temporal psychology they may serve as a phenomenological resource – a source of observations and meaning maps – but cannot automatically be treated as an empirical causal model without testing.
Put differently: astrology can be legitimately used as a cultural and therapeutic repertoire (working with symbol and meaning), but its postulates require verification if one wishes to claim scientific explanatory power.
Methodological recommendation. Use astrological and mythological motifs in therapy as metaphors and semiotic tools, but do not let them replace clinical diagnosis and statistical testing of hypotheses.
5. Hypotheses for Interdisciplinary Testing
(directions for research)
Below is a brief list of operational hypotheses that should be tested prospectively and with preregistered protocols:
– Circadian dysregulation correlates with increases in acute psychiatric exacerbations (to be tested via actigraphy and hospitalisation registries).
– Lunar phase modifies sleep parameters in sensitive individuals (prospective actigraphy under controlled conditions).
– Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with changes in the rates of acute events (lag analysis, multilevel modelling, satellite data).
– Long socio-economic cycles influence collective temporal scenarios that, in turn, shape individual decisions (historical-psychological research).
Each of these hypotheses is a candidate for prospective multicentre projects with preregistered protocols.
Practical Tool – Mini-Questionnaire
«Connected with Rhythms» (5—7 minutes)
(Use as a screening instrument; positive answers are a reason to deepen the temporal profile.)
1. Do you notice changes in your mood at different times of day? (never / sometimes / often)
2. Do you experience insomnia or worse sleep during full or new moon? (no / sometimes / yes)
3. Do you have seasonal fluctuations in mood/energy? (no / moderate / pronounced)
4. Have you noticed any link between your dreams and major external events (disasters, accidents)? (no / sometimes / yes)
5. Do you experience periods when «time falls out» – meaning seems to stop? (no / sometimes / often)
6. Do recurring family scenarios appear across generations? (no / a few / many)
7. Is your sleep disrupted when you change time zones or work schedules? (not at all / moderately / strongly)
Instruction for the therapist.
Answers such as «often / yes / pronounced / strongly» are a reason to expand the assessment of temporal handwriting (see Chapter 1) and, if appropriate, to compare events with external indicators (lunar phase on the date of the event, local weather/seismic data, Kp-index). Full diagnostic tools are presented in Part II and in the Appendix to Chapter 2.
Transition to the Next Chapter
In Chapter 1 we introduced the concept of temporal handwriting; in Chapter 2 we have added the layer of external attunements. The next chapter (Chapter 3) examines inner rhythms and the issue of the psyche stepping «beyond» material connections – atemporality and altered states of consciousness.
Kondratiev Waves and Psychological Adaptation to the Technological Epoch
Kondratiev waves are long cycles (approximately 40—60 years) describing regular fluctuations in the development of the global economy and technology. Each wave begins with a technological breakthrough that gradually permeates the entire society, changing not only production but also lifestyle, culture, modes of communication and thinking. After a phase of rapid growth come saturation, crisis, decline and the preparation of the next wave. Traditionally these macroeconomic rhythms were described with reference to economic processes, but their impact on psychology and human development remains understudied.
If we accept that the human being lives inside the rhythms of the epoch – technological, economic, cultural – then an individual biography is inevitably «inscribed» into these large-scale oscillations. Depending on the phase into which a person is born and in which they form, they may end up either in resonance or in dissonance with the dominant technologies of their time.
Synchronous Generation
Those born at the beginning of a new technological wave (for example, children of the 1990s—2000s during the digital upswing) develop together with the technological environment. They absorb innovations naturally, playfully. For them, digital, networked and hybrid thinking is the norm. Their psychology is «synchronous» with the epoch, and their inner rhythms coincide with external ones.
Transitional Generation
These are people whose childhood or youth falls on the boundary between technological regimes – for example, those born in the 1960s—70s who lived through the shift from an industrial to a digital world. They often have a split perception: on the one hand, a habit of a stable world of material things; on the other, a forced adaptation to abstract, networked, virtual structures. They often become bridges between epochs but also experience inner tension between the old and the new type of consciousness.
Asynchronous Generation
Particularly vulnerable are those born in the downturn phase, when the previous technological order is dying and the new one has not yet taken shape. Their skills and values become «orphans of the epoch»: they think in categories of yesterday’s world, while reality already demands a different logic. We see this especially clearly today: older or middle-aged people who have not managed to master digital technologies feel «fallen out of time.» They lose access to information, services and social connections. Lagging behind becomes not only technical but existential: a sense of being «unneeded» and «not contemporary» generates anxiety, shame and devaluation.