Temporal Psychology and Psychotherapy. The Human Being in Time and Beyond
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Examples. Experiences of eternity, peak states, deep transpersonal insights.
Feature. There is no natural linear order here, and the connections between states are better imagined as a network in which elements are linked not by sequence but by semantic resonances.
Transitions. A person can enter this field as a result of practice, crisis or a spontaneous surge. After returning from a timeless state, integration of the experience is required.
Scheme of Connections and Transitions
– The chronological line is the general framework.
– Each person has a family of subjective lines that are superimposed on this framework.
– Transitions into the state of atemporality are special shifts where the line of subjective time seems to fold into a «point of eternity» and then unfold back.
In graphical imagination, this can be depicted as follows: a horizontal axis – linear time; above it – a multitude of colored lines of different people and modes; vertical arrows – transitions into atemporality and returns from it.
Simple Applied Indicators
To make the model workable and applicable in psychotherapeutic practice, we can use simple observable indicators:
– Divergence of subjective and objective time. How much a person’s perception of duration differs from calendar time.
– Frequency of modes or subpersonalities. How often a person manifests this or that inner «Self» (working, creative, parental, etc.).
– Probability of transition into atemporality. How often the person shows experiences «outside time» – for example, as a result of practices or crises.
– Sequence of transitions between the three domains (1, 2, 0). We can code the states and observe how the person moves between them: from linear time – into subjective, then into atemporality and back.
– Variability of temporal handwriting. How diverse the person’s temporal transitions are: the more flexibility, the richer their inner «handwriting of time.»
Conclusion
The original ternary scheme («1 – linear, 2 – subjective, 0 – atemporal») remains a convenient intuitive map. But the complicated model shows:
– linear time – the general framework;
– subjective time – a multiplicity of lines for different people and their inner modes;
– atemporality – a field of states not reducible to linear sequence.
Such an approach makes the model suitable for practice: it can be described in words, observed in experience, recorded in diaries, and explored in therapy.
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The Complicated Model of Chronological Time
The model of time becomes much more complex if we look closely at the chronological (linear) time of an individual person. At first glance, as we have already defined, this is the «external» axis – clocks, calendars, biological cycles, social schedules and institutions. It provides the world with measurability, predictability, and coordination of actions between people. In the therapeutic context, chronological time is above all the sphere of regulation: sleep, nutrition, daily routine, prescriptions, planning, and adaptation to social demands.
However, on closer inspection it becomes clear that chronological time is not a neutral grid. Each person is born at a particular moment of chronos – at a specific time of day, day of the week, season, year, epoch. At that moment, their individual «temporal matrix» is launched – inner rhythms that enter into a complex resonance with the rhythms of the outer world. From that moment on, a person lives not just in time, but in their own time, in a unique combination of biological, social and cosmic cycles.
We can say that at birth each living being receives its own code of chronological time – a unique configuration of rhythms and phases that influences the characteristics of temperament, adaptation, and even susceptibility to illnesses. This is not mysticism, but an empirically observed phenomenon of biorhythmology and chronobiology. As early as F. Halberg (1967) showed, humans have stable circadian, ultradian, and infradian oscillations of physiological and mental functions, forming an individual chronotype. Research by K. Honma and J. Aschoff (Aschoff, 1981; Honma & Honma, 1988) confirmed that the internal «biological clocks» are capable of functioning autonomously, and that their synchronization with external time requires complex adaptation mechanisms.
In clinical practice, the psychotherapist encounters the fact that disruptions of this synchronization – desynchronosis – often underlie anxiety, affective and somatic disorders. Returning to one’s own rhythm of time, aligning internal and external chronos becomes part of therapeutic work. In this sense, individual chronotuning is not only a topic for physiology, but also a phenomenological, existential process of restoring concord between personal and cosmic time.
Therefore, we should speak of «chronological time» not as a single universal continuum for everyone, but as a multitude of unique times woven into the fabric of human life. And whereas astrology tends to turn this uniqueness into a scheme, modern psychology of time can view it as a manifestation of the deep connection between a person and the rhythms of a living Universe.
Network Experience of Time – Yet Another Level of Complexity
Personal, familial, cultural and epochal time, intertwining, create a field
An even more complex model of time arises when we begin to take into account the collective dimension of time (Chapter 38), symbolized by the ornament «Knot of Times,» representing the multiplicity and interweaving of collective times. Personal, familial, cultural and epochal time, intertwining, create a field. This is not a linear but a networked and nodal experience of time, in which it is important to distinguish layers and find points of conjunction.
Key Sources
Aschoff, J. – Biological Rhythms (Springer-Verlag, 1981).
A fundamental work by one of the founders of modern chronobiology. The author describes the principles of circadian and other biological cycles, the mechanisms of their synchronization with external factors (zeitgebers), and the adaptation of the organism to changes in the environment.
Klein, David C.; Moore, R. Y.; Reppert, Steven M. – The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus: The Mind’s Clock (Oxford University Press, 1991).
A monograph revealing the neurophysiological basis of human internal time. It shows the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus as the main biological oscillator coordinating circadian rhythms and the body’s physiological processes.
Halberg, Franz. – «Circadian (About Twenty-Four-Hour) Rhythms in Experimental Medicine» (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1967, vol. 60, no. 12, pp. 1423—1440).
A classic study that gave rise to the concept of endogenous biorhythms in humans and animals. Halberg’s work laid the foundation of chronobiology as a science, linking daily oscillations of physiological processes with clinical manifestations and health states.
Honma, Kazuo & Honma, Satoko. – «Human Circadian Rhythms and Sleep: Individual Differences and Their Clinical Significance» (Sleep, 1988, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 536—547).
A study of individual differences in circadian rhythms and chronotypes. The authors show that variations in sleep and activity timing have distinct psychophysiological significance, influencing emotional stability and a person’s adaptation.
Chapter 5. The Ornamentality of the Temporal Language
Summary
This chapter treats ornament as a full-fledged «language of time»: not only a decorative motif, but a visual and rhythmic grammar that encodes and transmits ways of experiencing time. The chapter develops the idea that ornament manifests far beyond book graphics or embroidery – in architecture and urban planning, in landscape, in product design, in music, dance, text and even in social rituals. We outline provisional correspondences between types of ornament and temporal regimes (1 – chronological; 2 – psychological; 0 – atemporal), discuss methodological risks of universalizing symbolism, and propose practical methods for using ornamental analysis in diagnosis and therapy.
Key concepts
– Ornament – a rhythmically organized visual (and more broadly – formal) pattern that sets the structure of the perception of time and space.
– Ornamental grammar – the set of rules and techniques (repetition, pause, symmetry, asymmetry, crescendo, rupture) that forms the «syntax» of visual temporality.
– Temporal code of ornament – a conventional link between the form of an ornament and a regime of time (chronological, psychological, atemporal).
– Archetype of ornament – stable basic images (meander, circle, mandala) that often carry universal or long-standing meanings of time.
– Ornament in broad culture – the idea that ornamental structures appear in «non-obvious» domains: the city, landscape, movement, sound, text and social behavior.
Aims of the chapter
– To show ornament as a universal way of expressing temporality.
– To broaden the view of where ornament manifests – from graphics to urban structure, design and behavior.
– To describe provisional correspondences «form ↔ regime of time» and clarify the methodological limits of such correspondences.
– To propose practical ways of applying ornamental analysis in the diagnosis of temporal handwriting and in therapeutic interventions.
Main Part
1. Ornament as a Language of Time – From Surface to Structure
Ornament is, above all, a rule of play with rhythm: repetition, interruption, development of a motif, symmetry and dissonance. When we look at an ornament, we do not merely see form – we read rhythm and «tempo»; it sets up expectation, the expectation of the next «breath,» the next pause. That is why ornament functions as a pre-linguistic map of time: it organizes perception even before we verbalize the experience. Understanding ornament as a language of time allows us to place visual form alongside verbal and behavioral manifestations of temporality – this brings together aesthetics, culture and psychotherapy.
2. Three Types of Ornament and Three Temporal Regimes (Provisional Correspondences)
Below are working correspondences that are useful as interpretive hints, not as laws.
– Chronological ornament (1). Motifs with regular metric repetition, meanders, step friezes, grids. They are read as counting, rhythm, meter; they are associated with order, schedules, norms. Examples: classical tiled geometry, regular facades with identical windows, ceremonial colonnades.
– Psychological ornament (2). Flowing, asymmetrical, plant-like patterns in which motifs develop associatively. They reflect inner time – free associations, the «density» of experience. Examples: poetic lines, intricate vegetal ornaments, free melody in folk music.
– Atemporal ornament (0). Closed figures, mandalas, concentric circles, symmetries that symbolize wholeness, presence, a «sudden stop» of chronological counting. Examples: mandalas in religious practice, rosettes on church facades, meditative patterns.
Importantly, ornament often combines regimes – an ornament may contain a strict counting core, a cascade of associative elements, and a center leading toward a state of timelessness (for example, Islamic geometry, where strict symmetry coexists with a sense of infinity).
3. Ornament Beyond the Decorative Field – Where Else the Language of Time Is «Written»
Ornamentality manifests in many domains, often not obviously as a «pattern.» Below are some exemplary domains and specific manifestations:
– Architecture and urban planning. Facades and street layouts, the rhythm of windows and staircases, the modularity of building – all this is the ornament of the urban fabric. A block plan with regular streets creates a chronological rhythm; winding streets «meandering» along the landscape – a psychological one; a central square with concentric layout – an atemporal center.
– Landscape design and rural layout. The division of plots, the regularity of plantings, rows of trees along paths – an ornament of times of day and seasons. Fields oriented to the solar arc «read» the year in the rhythm of vegetation.
– Industrial and product design. Rhythmic grids of ventilation holes, the rhythm of headlights on a car, repeating details of an electronic device – formal principles that create a temporal feeling: a moving car is «read» as directed time, an object with a concentric pattern – as a «point of presence.»
– Text and literary rhythm. Repetitions, anaphora, meter, strobing syntax – ornament in verbal time. A poetic refrain is an ornament of memory; fragmentary, stream-like syntax – an ornament of inner time.
– Music and sound (rhythmic patterns). Meter, beat, repetition of a theme (rhetorical refrain) – chronological ornament; free improvisational melody – psychological; Zen practices with monotonous sounds – atemporal.
– Dance and bodily movement. Repeated steps, choreographic symmetry or improvisational fluidity – visual ornaments that set the tempo of experience.
– Behavior and rituals. Daily rituals (morning coffee, ceremonies and rites) – ornaments of the chronological type; family stories, stable rhetoric – narrative ornament; collective mysteries – atemporal ornaments.
– Social media and digital interfaces. News feeds, algorithmic repetitions, cyclical notifications – a new kind of ornamentality shaping the modern «temporal handwriting» (acceleration, fragmentation, cyclicity).
– Individual artistic production. Drawings, dream journals, autobiographical masks – ornamental imprints of a person’s temporal handwriting.
These examples show that ornamentality is not only an aesthetic property, but also a behavioral, planning and technological characteristic of a culture.
4. Methodology of Ornamental Analysis in Temporal Psychology
How can we work with ornament clinically and in research?
– Collecting material. Gather visual samples (the client’s drawings, objects, ornaments in the home), auditory samples (favorite music, speech rhythms), spatial samples (layout of the dwelling, routes of movement) and textual samples.
– Analysis on the 1/2/0 scales. For each sample, note the predominant structural features: meter/repetition (1), flow/association (2), center/symmetry (0). It is necessary to record multidimensionality – one sample can have several labels.
– Comparison with temporal handwriting. Compare ornamental features with the results of temporal handwriting scales (ch. 1) – convergences may support the hypothesis of a visual expression of temporal handwriting.
– Intervention through ornament. Therapeutic techniques: inviting the client to recreate an ornament (drawing, mandala), changing rhythm in daily rituals (introducing regular «chronological» steps or, conversely, practices of free association), using ornamental meditations (mandalas, repeated sounds).
– Ethical and cultural reflection. Always consider cultural context; do not assign universal meanings without checking with the client; use ornament as an instrument of dialogue, not as a diagnosis.
5. Brief Clinical and Cultural Cases
– Clinical case 1. A patient stuck in the past draws repeating meanders and geometric friezes; the intervention is to introduce «vegetal» ornament into a creative task and to work with images of the future, which leads to expanding the temporal perspective.
– Urban planning cases. A city with a regular street grid shows a high level of chronological predictability in its inhabitants (schedule regime), whereas labyrinth-like layouts foster other forms of temporal experience (richer inner fantasy and «local» time).
– Product design. A car with regularly repeating elements is perceived as «reliable,» while organic, streamlined forms evoke a feeling of «time of movement» and emotional involvement.
6. Limitations, Critique and Rules of Caution
– Cultural conditioning. Interpretations of patterns are sensitive to context: what in one culture is read as atemporal may in another simply denote group belonging or status.
– Risk of reduction. Do not reduce a person to a single ornament; ornament is one element in a contextual palette.
– Empirical testing. Ornamental analysis requires systematic comparison with behavioral and self-report data; without this, interpretations remain hypotheses.
– Ethics. Do not use ornament to stigmatize; work with the client in a spirit of co-investigation and consent.
Practical Recommendations (Briefly)
– When diagnosing temporal handwriting, collect simple visual data: a drawing, a pattern on clothing, a room plan.
– Ask the client to describe why they choose a particular pattern – this is important verbal integration of visual material.
– In the therapeutic exercise of «recoding handwriting,» invite the client to create an ornament by changing a single element in it (from strict → flowing → closed) and discuss the felt changes.
– In a group – practices of collective creation of mandalas or ornamental paintings to integrate collective temporal experiences.
Literature
Gasparov, B. M. – Literary Leitmotifs: Essays on Russian Literature of the 20th Century (year of publication to be specified at layout).
The book analyzes devices of repetition, variation of motifs, and structural cycles in literary texts – all of which can be transferred into the visual plane as the «ornament of language.» Particularly important are the observations on how leitmotifs organize the temporal extension of a work, how repetition becomes a marker of meaning, and how textual «patterns» relate to the reader’s experience of time. Practical use in temporal psychology: methods for analyzing patients’ narratives and creative products for ornamental repetitions and temporal motifs.
Gurevich, A. Ya. – Categories of Medieval Culture (1985 and later editions).
A study of the rhythms and symbolic structures of medieval worldview: liturgical cycles, architectural ornamentation, the syntax of sacred space. These observations are valuable for understanding ornament as a universal form of organizing time – not only in fabric or book patterns, but also in the layout of churches, cities, calendars and rituals. Gurevich’s work supports the idea of the widespread presence of temporal ornament in material and spiritual practices.
Kravchenko, S. A. – ASC and AI – 2. The Book of the Bridge (2025).
An author’s work directly related to the topic of this chapter. The book provides a methodological platform for correlating ornament and temporal layers of the psyche, as well as practical cases and exercises. It proposes the notion of a «bridge» – intermediate symbolic practices that translate the experience of timelessness into an integrable psychological resource. For this chapter, the book serves as an applied foundation: examples of protocols for analyzing drawings, masks and city plans as ornamental imprints of temporal handwriting.
Losev, A. F. – The Dialectics of Myth (classical editions of 1949—1960s and reprints).
A philosophical—mythological theory of symbol and myth as forms of temporal meaning-formation. Losev shows that myth and symbol shape archetypal rhythms – cycles, returns, centers – which in culture become models of time. These ideas allow us to treat ornament not as a decorative form but as a representation of mythical time and «atemporal» meanings, later entering personal handwriting and collective scripts.
Eliade, M. – Images and Symbols and related works on symbolism (1950s—1980s).
A classic of religious and symbolic anthropology. Eliade explores universal archetypes (circle, mandala, axis mundi), explaining why certain ornamental forms are perceived as eternal. For temporal psychology, these ideas serve as a theoretical background: they reveal the role of symbols in creating experiences of participation beyond linear time. A practical conclusion: an ornament that evokes a «mandala-like» impression may point to a tendency toward atemporal experiences and the search for inner wholeness.
Conclusion
Ornament is a powerful diagnostic and therapeutic resource: it reflects, shapes and supports the temporal regimes of personality and culture. Expanding the notion of ornament beyond the decorative field opens new perspectives for temporal psychology – from the analysis of individual drawings and everyday rituals to the study of urban fabric and design as large-scale «ornamental texts of time.» At the same time, any interpretations require cultural sensitivity, empirical verification and clinical caution.
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The Appendix to Chapter 5 contains the test «Ornament and the Language of Time.»
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Conclusions of Part I
Brief Conclusions of Part I – «Foundations and Principles»
– Time in the psyche is not only an external scale, but also an inner fabric of experience. Temporal characteristics (duration, tempo, retention/protention) shape affective tones, semantic accents and the structure of personality.
– The operational category of «temporal handwriting» has been introduced. Handwriting is a stable, individually colored way of experiencing time, a product of the interaction of biological, sociocultural and archetypal rhythms.
– Temporal handwriting mirrors personality typology, but is not reducible to it. Introversion/extraversion set the vector of sensitivity (inner vs external rhythms), but handwriting is more complex: it includes tempo, rhythm-sensitivity, a tendency toward atemporality, and patterns of transition between temporal regimes.
– External rhythms (daily, lunar, seasonal, multi-year) are a real context of temporality. They influence the states and clinical manifestations of personality; taking them into account increases diagnostic accuracy but requires methodological caution in interpreting correlations.
– Altered states of consciousness (ASC) mark the «threshold» of going beyond ordinary temporal conditioning. ASC can redistribute the weight of past/present/future, open access to atemporal experiences and become either a resource or a risk – depending on preparation and integration.
– Temporality is reflected in cultural objects – above all in ornaments and temporal «fonts.» Visual and verbal codes carry pre-linguistic schemas of time and can serve as additional diagnostic and therapeutic tools (with cultural context in mind).
– The proposed ternary metaphor (1 – chronological; 2 – psychological; 0 – atemporal) is a useful working tool. It simplifies mapping temporal regimes and designing interventions, but requires elaboration and operationalization for empirical verification.