Time on My Hands

• Ed Riemann: It's About Time! by James Brody, 3/22/97
  
  

Jim, Sorry for this delayed response but time "just got away from me"(sic). Maybe its time (no pun intended) that we started to conceptualize at least some human problems within the context of time. To do so we must first question some of our own foundations as to the nature and impact of time on us and those around us. We ,as a society, tend to be overly dependent on what is called linear time (that time that follows a straight line (and eventually falls off the end of our round planet). Case in point. I work extensively with older people (Elders) who are often depressed due to their life circumstances. The first thing I do from a clinical perspective is to attempt to "loosen them up" in terms of their understanding of time (sort of "take them off the clock"). The second thing I do is to attempt to get them to disassociate time from saniety. Many Elders (as most people) strongly associate their own saniety with their sense of linear time (something reinforced heavily in the socialization and educational process). With this population (moderate to severely depressed Elderly often with an additional dx. of Dementia [Alzhiemers type]) I open by stating "I would like to talk to you about time". "Iam not talking about this type of time (as I point to my watch) , this is how rich people make money on us". I almost always get recognition to this atatement (mostly smiles of recognition). "I want to talk to you about "Gods time, or time of the ages or historical time". This phrasing allows for those who both believe in a higher power and those who do not. Next, I move on to talking about depression as a "gap" in time. I use a lot of hand cues here for those having the dual diagnosis of Depression/Dementia often have difficulty with attention and focus. I use my hands in demonstrationg this gap and I further state "depression is a sort of gap in time and the wider this gap gets the deeper the depression gets". I continue with "as time slows down depression tends to get deeper (I often use words such as sadness and sometimes even melancholy) words better understood by Elders)". Then I state "so what you (the patient) have to do is stop this gap from getting wider". Then I suggest "when you are doing something and time starts to slow down, STOP what you are doing and do something else". I give several examples " for example if you are watching TV and time starts to slow down, change the channel". Bear in mind that I have to stay very concrete due to the nature of my patients. .......As you can see it is not easy presenting actual clinical practice in a written medium. But I hope you get the idea. It works quite well with this population............In conclusion, I think it may be us, with our over reliance on linear time, that have a time bias. To date I have identified at least ten ways in which humans and cultures conceptualize time (slopeing/circular/linear with its combinations and one permutation). Further there are several operational contexts upon which time is a varient (ie. progression,digression,retrogression, devolution, developmental, historical and theological). I would like to continue this dialogue because I happen to think that the nature and perception of time has a lot to do with psychopathology.......Please take the time for a response.......Ed

• Thoughtful Approach! by James Brody, 4/3/97