Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book illustrates the concepts with all the theoretical variations characterizing state-of-the-art psychoanalysis. The concept of time is probably not substantially different from other abstract concepts to which assign a term: a term that actually includes so many things that none of them in isolation defines it clearly. In imaginary time, unlike real time, forward or backwards makes no difference. Stephen Hawking proposes three different time arrows: the thermodynamic arrow; the psychological arrow and the cosmological arrow. “Euclidean” time was added to real time: the former is a time not measured by clocks, but expressed by imaginary numbers that facilitate the calculations that describe what, in quantum mechanics, is called the “quantum tunnel”. Precisely, the debate between repetitive times vs. open, irreversible times deeply involves the psychoanalytic field. In contemporary psychoanalysis, the concepts of time and history have become increasingly complex.