Temporal Psychology and Psychotherapy. The Human Being in Time and Beyond
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Dynamics and Interaction
The regimes combine and overlap: one and the same episode of experience may contain elements of all three regimes. In therapy, the important thing is not to «push» the client into atemporality as such, but to manage transitions: preparation → controlled entry → integration. ASC act as an instrument that makes these transitions visible and manageable.
3. The Ternary Metaphor: 1 – 2 – 0 and Its Meaning
Ternary coding is a convenient metaphor for thinking and operationalization.
– 1 (chronology) – support, measurability, everyday action.
– 2 (psychology) – inner flow, narrative, handwriting.
– 0 (atemporality) – resource or challenge, the «zero point» where meaning can be reconstructed.
Practically, this means that we can code the stream of experience as sequences of trits and analyze them as «temporal words.» This opens paths toward formalization:
– EMA (Ecological Momentary Assessment),
– diaries,
– Markov models of transitions (mathematical models describing a sequence of system states where the probability of the next state depends only on the current one),
– calculation of entropy of the temporal sequence (a quantitative estimate of how predictable or unpredictable this sequence is).
In therapeutic design we can conceive «rules of grammar»: preparation (strengthening 2), entry (allowing 0), integration (transition 0→2→1).
Limitation. The model is a tool; it does not explain the «essence of time,» but helps to set tasks, formulate hypotheses, and measure changes.
4. Temporal Fonts and Languages of Time
What Are the «Font» and «Language» of Time?
Temporal handwriting is an individual, stable style of experiencing and structuring time. It is one’s personal style of time – the way a person senses duration, holds the past, anticipates the future, and experiences atemporality. It manifests in speech tempo, actions, emotional cycles, and life rhythms.
Temporal font is a metaphorical «typeface of time» – a typical configuration of rhythms, sequences and cycles characteristic of a particular group, generation or social environment. It reflects a typological level of temporal organization – a general style of life, ways of anticipating, and responses to the future.
Temporal language is the totality of symbolic, verbal, bodily, visual and ritual forms through which a culture expresses, organizes and transmits its experience of time. This is the level of cultural grammar of time, where the «words» are rhythms, pauses, gestures, ornaments, narratives and rituals. Mastering temporal language in therapy means the ability to hear cultural forms of time and translate them into the experience of personal development and healing.
Script, font, and language of time: three forms of traces on the sand of human life
How Fonts Are Formed and Transmitted
– Culture and institutions. School, church, work schedules form notions of what is «chronologically correct.»
– Family and genogram. Family rituals, stories and scripts transmit temporal habits (what «soon» means, what «success» means).
– Material culture and ornament. Visual codes (patterns, architecture, clothing ornament) carry rhythms: closed forms – an intonation of an introverted font; open lines and waves – an extroverted one. This creates a diagnostic and design possibility: ornament can serve as a marker and an instrument (in comparison with the client’s scores on temporal handwriting scales).
Diagnosis Through Fonts
Hypothesis: stable visual and linguistic markers correlate with temporal handwriting. For example: in a society/family where strict, digital codes dominate (rigid rows, clear squares), one can expect a culture of «1→1→1»; in artistic communities – more frequent insertions of 2 and 0. Ornamental diagnostics is so far a hypothesis that requires empirical verification (comparing ornament traits with temporal handwriting scales and behavioral data).
Therapeutic Use of Fonts
Resemiotization: working with symbols and ornaments to restructure the sense of time (for example, introducing visual forms that stimulate slow attention into practice). This is the process of translating personal experience from one temporal dimension into another – from past into present, from dream into speech, from unconscious symbol into conscious idea. For example: in a dream (in an ASC) a symbol appears → in a drawing it becomes an image → in conversation – a word → in action – a deed → in the future – a new attitude toward the world. Each transition is an act of resemiotization in time, and this is the key to understanding how a person reinterprets and relives the time of their life. A practical example (from mask therapy). A patient makes a mask that expresses an inner shadow. This mask is a new semiotic form of old unconscious content. When the patient begins to speak from the mask’s point of view, resemiotization occurs: unconscious affect becomes image, then speech, then meaning. As a result, the person integrates a fragment of personality – a «temporal subpersonality» – into a more coherent Self. In philosophical terms, resemiotization is the life of meaning, its movement in time and in forms. Each sign is only a temporary shell, a «temporal form» of content that is always alive in its transitions. Thus meaning becomes a temporal being, moving from symbol to symbol, from state to state.
Narrative reconfiguration: rewriting family and cultural stories in which the temporal grammar changes (from «life is a plan» to «life as flow and creativity»).
Active interventions: mask therapy, creating ornamental paintings/portraits that help integrate 0→2→1 transitions.
5. Mechanisms – A Working Hypothesis
– Phenomenologically: ASC change the structure of retention/protention – past and future are redistributed in the present.
– Neurophysiologically (hypothesis): a shift in network dynamics (DMN, attentional networks), changes in rhythm synchrony (gamma/theta/alpha), increased short-term entropy of brain activation.
– Psychosocially: language, rituals, ornaments and family scripts modify readiness for the experience of atemporality and influence strategies of integration.
These levels must be tested jointly: phenomenology → physiology → long-term clinical outcomes.
6. Practical Logic of Application
– Screening: assessment of temporal handwriting (ch. 1), a scale of experiencing timelessness, checking for contraindications.
– Preparation: stabilization (sleep, nutrition, routine anchors), autogenic training, grounding, informed consent.
– Controlled entry: gentle techniques → deeper, according to readiness; recording 1/2/0 sequences (EMA, diary).
– Integration: translating experience into speech, symbol, action; using fonts/ornament to consolidate changes.
– Monitoring: short-term and long-term, supervision, biomarkers in research protocols.
7. Ethical and Methodological Warnings
– Deep ASC are not for everyone; contraindications: active psychosis, unstable medication, pronounced suicidality.
– Distinguish phenomenology from metaphysics; «I experienced eternity» ≠ proof of an ontological claim.
– Document and preregister research in order to avoid apophenia.
– Informed consent and an emergency plan are mandatory.
– Working with cultural symbols requires respect, avoidance of cultural appropriation, and a co-creative ethic.
8. Conclusion – A Bridge to Practice
The proposed working model of the experience of time is an instrument for diagnosis and for designing interventions. The ternary metaphor and the notion of temporal fonts provide a language for planning therapeutic grammars: how to prepare, how to allow, how to integrate.
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The Appendix to Chapter 4 contains a list of practical methods for entering ASC, a «dictionary of fonts,» and examples for recognizing the «language of time.»
Literature
Grof, S. – The Holotropic Mind (1993).
A systematization of transpersonal states of consciousness and the development of a methodology for integrating them into the therapeutic process. The book combines clinical experience, phenomenology and spiritual practices, laying the foundation of transpersonal psychotherapy.
Husserl, E. – On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (lectures, ca. 1905).
A foundational phenomenological analysis of the structure of time: retention, protention and the act of the «now.» A basic philosophical grounding for understanding how time is constituted in the stream of consciousness.
James, W. – The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).
A classic exploration of mystical states and experiences of «encounters with eternity.» Important for the phenomenological description of altered states of consciousness and their role in spiritual life.
Carhart-Harris, R. L. et al. – The Entropic Brain (2014) and subsequent works on the neural correlates of psychedelic states.
A modern neuroscientific concept explaining how changes in brain network dynamics are related to experiences of atemporality, expanded consciousness and ego dissolution. Provides a physiological basis for understanding the therapeutic potential of ASC.
Schultz, J. H. – Autogenic Training (1932 and later).
A practical method of self-regulation and controlled entry into altered states of consciousness. Serves as a tool for preparation, stabilization and recovery in deep psychotherapeutic work.
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Additions to Chapter 4
«Fonts» of Temporality
«Fonts» of Temporality: Cultural, Professional and Generational Context
In addition to the individual temporal handwriting, there is a level of collective «fonts» of temporality – stable ways of living in time that are formed by culture, profession, generation and social institutions. These «fonts» are like typefaces: some communities prefer a dense, small font of daily routines (industrial workers, state institutions), others – broad calligraphic strokes of creative work (artists, poets), still others – the machine-like, sparse rhythm of digital culture (IT specialists, digital nomads).
Key observations and practical consequences:
– Fonts define people’s expectations about time: what is considered the norm (working at night/day, speed of response, planning horizons).
– They modify temporal handwriting: work habits, family-time rituals, collective celebrations and mourning – all of this shapes, reinforces or suppresses certain trits (1/2/0).
– In therapy it is important not to confuse a cultural font with pathology: rigidity of a «chronological» font is not always a symptom – often it is an adaptation to social roles.
– Fonts change historically: digitalization, urbanization, migration create new combinations of trits and new «typefaces» of temporality.
Practical cheat sheet for the therapist (briefly): when taking a history, include questions about
– work schedule and professional rituals;
– family rhythms (mealtimes, evening rituals, religious holidays);
– technical fueling of time (messengers, notifications, night work);
– generational expectations (future plans, ideas of duty/freedom);
– migration/long breaks (how relocation changed the «font»).
Methodological hint for research: code observations at two levels – individual sequences (trits) and «font» metadata (culture, profession, age). This will allow us to distinguish personal patterns from collective repertoires and to design appropriate interventions.
Be careful with universalization – we should not reduce a person to a «font.» Fonts are a useful metaphor and tool, but primary is individual phenomenology.
Temporal «Language»
Temporal «Language» – The Idea and Its Role in the Structure of the Book
1. What It Is and Why It Is Needed
If temporal handwriting is an individual way of living in time, and the temporal «font» is a collective, cultural—professional way of «writing» time, then temporal language is the set of sign, narrative and symbolic rules that stand behind these fonts and handwritings. Temporal language is the grammar of time: categories, metaphors, the syntax of causal links, ways of marking «beginning/end,» ritual codes of time, canons of memory and of projecting the future.
The language of time sets not only the form of experience but also the map of meaning – it offers terms for past traumas, frameworks for expectations of the future, and ways of narrative integration of the present. In this sense, handwriting and font are the visible, practical realization of the language: script, calligraphy, the «font» of behavior and ritual.
2. Examples of «Languages of Time» (Contrasting Models)
– Agrarian language of time (circular). Monthly, seasonal markers, harvest rituals. Grammar: repetition, cyclicity, «repetition as meaning.» Font: circular, rhythmic; handwriting: family traditions, seasonal rituals.
– Industrial language of time (linear/progressive). «Time is money,» planning, linear progress. Grammar: causality, accumulation, deadlines. Font: regular work schedule; handwriting: punctuality, discipline.
– Digital language of time (compressed/parallel). Instant communication loops, multitasking, asynchrony. Grammar: notifications, flow, immediacy. Font: rapid switching, short cycles of attention.
– Mystical/ritual language of time (atemporal). Rituals as entry into pre-time; grammar – metaphor of eternity, «folded» stories; font – symbols, icons, ritual texts.
Each civilization and era has a set of such languages; within them there are dialects (professions, classes, subcultures).
3. What the Term «Temporal Language» Adds – Practical Value
– Analytical perspective. Allows us to distinguish surface practices (fonts) from deep semantics (language), and to formulate interventions more precisely.
– Clinical sensitivity. Understanding which «language» the client speaks about time helps translate experience into meanings that are understandable for them, without imposing alien temporal grammars.
– Cultural competence. The therapist sees that «normal» for one cultural font is symptomatic for another; treatment ceases to be a universal template.
– Research operationalization. The language can be studied via corpora (literature, ritual texts), narrative analysis, semiotics, and then related to empirical data (EMA, biomarkers).
– Methodological tool. To design therapeutic programs as «translation»: to teach a person to read their own language of time and, if desired, try other «dialects» – expanding their repertoire.
4. Methods for Studying Temporal Language
– Phenomenology and in-depth interviews (first-person description of temporal grammars).
– Narrative and discourse analysis (texts, oral traditions, media).
– Corpus studies: frequencies of time metaphors in literature/newspapers/social media across epochs.
– Semiotics and visual analytics (architecture, calendars, art as «fonts» of language).
– Cognitive linguistics: metaphorical maps of time (à la Lakoff/Johnson) in different languages.
– Computer analysis of sequences (Markov, trit codes) – correlating linguistic structure with the empirical stream of experience.
5. Limitations and Warnings
– Metaphoric nature of the term. «Language» is a powerful metaphor, but we should not transfer literal properties of a coding language to the entire psyche.
– Danger of reduction. A person is not only a bearer of a language of time; the psyche is multidimensional. Language is a tool, not the master.
– Cultural determinacy. Not every change of «language» equals «progress»; interventions must respect the autonomy of cultures and individuality.
– Epistemic caution. Descriptive power must be accompanied by evidential testing: correlations, experiment, prospective studies.
Examples of «Languages of Time» (Three Cultures / Epochs)
1) Ancient Greece – Philosophical—Cosmic Language of Time
– Short description. In the Greek classical intellectual tradition, time is often connected with the cosmos, order and ontology: time is derived from the eternal, ordering the movement of the heavens and human life. The language of time here shapes ideas of cycles and orders, but also emphasizes the link between time, causality and the meaning of human action.
– Paraphrased quote: «Time is the moving image of eternity.» (Plato, Timaeus).
– Manifestations in font/handwriting: the calligraphy of scientific and philosophical thinking; the rhythm of civic life where political action and ritual deadlines intertwine; handwriting – the ability to localize an event in a chain of causality and meaning.
– Clinical—practical sense: for a patient with a «Platonic» language of time, the logic of meaning and ordering experience along causal lines is important; therapy is helpful when it focuses on narrative and philosophical re-thinking.
2) Classical India (Vedas / Upanishads / Bhagavad-Gita) – Cyclical, Cosmological Language of Time
– Short description. In Hindu cosmological traditions, time is arranged cyclically: epochs (yugas), rhythms of creation and destruction, the understanding of time as a force that includes both creation and demise. In this language, «eternity» and «repetition» coexist; the idea of participation in a universal flow is central.
– Short quote: «I am Time, the Destroyer of worlds.» (Bhagavad-Gita XI.32, brief formula).
– Manifestations in font/handwriting: seasonal rituals, calendar cycles, collective rhythms of rites; handwriting – life as participation in large cycles, where an individual fate is inscribed into a sequence of yugas.
– Clinical—practical sense: for bearers of such a language of time, therapy often needs to take cyclical symbolism into account: working with repetition, ritualizing integration of experiences, using images of eternal return as a resource.
3) Industrial / Modern Era (West, 19th—20th Centuries) – Linearly Progressive Language of Time
– Short description. With the transition to industrial forms of production and to modern scientific-technical culture, a language of time emerges that values linear progress, efficiency and the accounting of time as a resource («time is money»). It dictates discipline, planning, calculation; psychologically it manifests as a focus on schedules, deadlines and productivity.
– Reference thought: the key idea is time discipline in capitalism (see E. P. Thompson, «Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism»).
– Manifestations in font/handwriting: rigid schedules, factory punctuality, bureaucratic accounting; individual handwriting – a tendency toward precise planning, anxiety when the schedule is disrupted.
– Clinical—practical sense: therapy needs to work with routine regulation, reduction of perfectionism, teaching flexibility of temporal handwriting (introducing short practices of presence, changing rhythms).
How to Read and Use These Examples (Briefly)
1. Language → font → handwriting. The language of time sets deep grammar; the font is its materialized style (rituals, schedule), handwriting is the individual manner (behavioral and subjective style).
2. Diagnosis and empathy. In clinical work, it is helpful to first «recognize the language» of the client: which metaphors of time do they use? This gives a key for interpreting symptoms and selecting interventions.
3. Cross-cultural caution. We do not impose «one language» on another; the task is to translate, not replace. The therapist acts as a guide helping to expand the repertoire of languages of time, not erase the native font.
4. Historical perspective. Epochs and civilizations have complex, often mixed languages – for example, the modern city combines remnants of the agrarian language (seasons), industrial (schedule) and digital (immediacy).
(A diagnostic checklist for recognizing the «language of time» is given in the Appendix.)
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Final Reflective Paragraph
Introducing the concept of temporal language deepens our construction: from individual handwriting and collective font we rise to the grammar of the meaning of time. Understanding the languages spoken by different cultures and epochs gives us a tool for sensitive and culturally competent clinical practice – not for unifying experience, but for respectful translation, integration and expansion of the temporal repertoire of the individual.
The Complicated Model of Time
Brief Idea
The original ternary metaphor (1 – chronological; 2 – psychological; 0 – atemporality) unfolds into three large sets. Each of them is not a single sign, but a multiplicity of elements and connections. It is important to distinguish two levels:
– the multiplicity of people (each person is a bearer of their own psychological time);
– the multiplicity of states within one person (subpersonalities, altered states of consciousness, different modes).
1. Chronological (Linear) Time – A Simple Structure
Image. This is the axis of clocks and calendar: an ordered sequence of moments.
Feature. The present should be conceived not as a point, but as a small «blurred» interval, because phenomenologically moments are indistinguishable from one another.
Practical function. Linear time serves as a common framework, a coordinate grid for events and their dating.
2. Psychological (Subjective) Time – A Multitude of Lines of Subjectivity
It is important here to distinguish two layers.
First layer – multiplicity of people.
Each person has their own time-line, depending on their history, culture, biorhythms.
Second layer – multiplicity within one person.
The same person can experience time differently depending on the inner mode or subpersonality. For example, «working Self,» «parental Self,» «creative Self,» «traumatized Self.» In special altered states of consciousness these modes may radically restructure time perception.
Consequence. Psychological time is not one line for each person, but a whole family of lines: different modes of one subject overlap and interact with each other.
Practical conclusion. When building an empirical model, we cannot average data «across the population» without taking into account that within each person there is their own multiplicity of time-lines.
3. Atemporality (Field «0») – The Space of Timelessness
Intuition. Atemporality is not emptiness, but a multiplicity of states and perspectives where the usual order «past—present—future» ceases to operate.