Working through the awareness of death and the consciousness of time, it is hypothesized, plays a decisive role in the analytic process and in the mental growth of psychotic analysands, as well as in the integration of the psychotic areas in healthier patients. Clinical material is presented from a psychotic woman treated analytically, four sessions a week, for twelve years. The patient suffered several acute relapses, during which the analytic work was not interrupted. Her fourth psychotic episode in the course of analysis, which involved a delusion about gray men and the theft of time, is explored in particular depth. This phase fostered the patient’s recognition of the value of time, together with the acquisition of her own center of psychosensory integration, the basis of an ability to learn from experience.
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