The concept of the 50-minute hour Framing the unconscious by the clock

摘要

The 50-minute hour is a feature of psychoanalytical work mostly discussed in the context of case reports. The author explores it here as a concept. He describes (1) how the 50-minute hour was invented and developed as part of the psychoanalytical setting or framework. He then addresses (2) the importance of the clock as a relational factor in the session. He questions how foreign the time of day is to the unconscious and what follows out of this foreignness. In presenting a clinical case he discusses (3) the phenomenon of the expansion of time during the session. Finally, he points out how cunningly the 50-minute hour excises the time of unconscious processes out of the accelerated times of our present, criticizing the sociocultural convention of time and appears structure forming for the psyche by timing it.