ABSTRACT
The relational track at NYU was just congealing and becoming an alternative to the other tracks. Jody’s training at NYU was primarily located in the Freudian track, the interpersonal/humanistic track. While noting their relational import as transitional phenomena, a place holder between internal and external worlds, we also note the ways that a secret plays with time. In the case of someone who has suffered an abundance of unsatisfying, unloving or abusive relationships, secrets may serve the function of freezing time. Whether Guntrip’s regressed ego or Winnicott’s true self in hiding, both phenomena contain a wish for a safer, life-affirming future time with loving others. All have a common concern with the centrality of relationship in the development and structure of personality. In the case of someone who has suffered an abundance of unsatisfying, unloving or abusive relationships, secrets may serve the function of freezing time.
