Accepted Manuscript

Editorial

Time and temporality: role of rhythmicity in psychic organization

Sylvie Tordjman

PII: S0928-4257(13)00039-9
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2013.06.003
Reference: PHYSIO 567

To appear in: Journal of Physiology - Paris

Please cite this article as: Tordjman, S., Time and temporality: role of rhythmicity in psychic organization, Journal
of Physiology - Paris (2013), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jphysparis.2013.06.003

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers
we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and
review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process
errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
 1
EDITORIAL

Time and temporality: role of rhythmicity in psychic organization

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the

month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the

dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a

movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does

not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures

time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a

paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.

Mitch Albom (The Time Keeper, 2012)

On the subjectivity of time

As we saw in the special issue of the Journal of Physiology-Paris entitled Towards a Dialogue

between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: On the Relativity of Time, the past, the future, and even the

present, are subjective representations that depend on each present individual’s psychological time and

biological time. Thus, both past and future are subjective representations built in the present (memories

of the past, projections into the future). Whenever we activate a memory of the past or project

ourselves into the future, we are - and always will be - in the present moment of a process of mental

representation. This is reminiscent of Saint Augustine’s remark “Who, therefore, denies that future

things as yet are not? There is already in the mind the expectation of things future. And who denies that

past things are now no longer? But, however, there is still in the mind the memory of things past.”

(Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book XI, Chapter XXVIII, 397-398/1993). Memories of the past can

become mixed up with the present, leading to temporal confusion, especially in the wake of traumatic

situations that either freeze the present experienced by an individual or else contaminate it with

flashbacks. In this special issue, Jacques Dayan has skilfully shown how the past can come to be

regarded as the present by individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), causing specific but

permanent interference with both personality and cognitive functioning. Furthermore, Etienne Klein

emphasised this paradox: “How can time exist if the past is no longer, if the future is not yet, and if the

present is not always?” (Etienne Klein, Bulletin Interactif du Centre International de Recherches et

Etudes Transdisciplinaires, N° 12, Février 1998). Henri Bergson argues that the linear succession of

periods as future, present and past is an intellectual illusion. He wrote “Time is invention or it is

nothing at all” (Henri Bergson, Evolution créatrice, PUF, 1916/1970, p. 341). Finally, Bergson
 2
sidestepped the difficulty of achieving a common definition of an objective time, identical for all the

individuals, by proposing the concept of subjective perception of time. He associated time with the

notion of duration, and more specifically of the “duration lived by our consciousness” (Bergson, 1998).

The perception of time, especially past time and future time, requires us to develop and to

access memories and expectations, and depends on cognitive factors such as memory capacity and

emotion processing. In her review of research on the time distortions generated by emotions, Sylvie

Droit-Volet included studies of affective disorders such as depression, where patients had reported

impressions of time slowing down. She introduced a distinction between time perception and explicit

awareness of the passage of time. This awareness of the passage of time is also influenced by memories

– indeed, mindful of the first line of Baudelaire’s Spleen (“I have more memories than if I were a

thousand years old”), we could even talk about the age of our memories. An individual’s identity is

constructed from his or her experiences and memories. This identity is also defined and consolidated

via the recollections expressed and conveyed to others, in a narrativity that helps to reinforce the

feeling of existing.

Speed and chronological age play also a role in time perception. The perceived duration of an

event depends on the observer’s motion in a surrounding environment (this motion is different

according to the speed or age of the individual as developed previously in the special issue of Journal

of Physiology- Paris on the relativity of time) and on the observer’s interaction with this particular

environment. It is the relationship between the observer in a particular state (emotional state, speed,

etc.) and a particular environment (environmental elements characterized by their fluidity, mass,

density, color, etc.) that defines reality. In other words, it is impossible to subtract the observer’s

participation from what reality is actually, and to describe a single reality that would be the same for

all.This is true for time perception but also for the actual passage of chronological time, which depends

on various physical parameters, such as our speed of motion or our body mass with its gravitation

effect. Thus, time is relative, and varies according to the speed at which we are travelling. Thus, the

closer we get to the speed of light (300 000 km/s), the slower the clock moves (there is a slowing down

in the rhythm of the clock). This is one of the predictions of Einstein’s theory of relativity linking space

to time. His theory was verified in 1971, by comparing atomic clocks flown around the world on

commercial airliners with identical clocks that remained on the ground. The former were found to be

jet-lagged by a few thousandths of a second. This factor now has to be taken into account to ensure that

clocks carried on board GPS satellites are perfectly synchronized with those on Earth.
 3
Each of us therefore has a different perception of time, depending on our emotional state and

our unique history (our past and the age of our memories), as well as on physical and physiological

factors related to our chronological age and our external – or internal – speed. The Arman sculpture

featuring an accumulation of clocks each showing a different time, in stark contrast to the single station

clock visible in the background (see cover image), illustrates perfectly the notion that there is no single,

one-size-fits-all time for everyone, but rather a different, subjective time for each individual. We need

to acknowledge the existence of different interindividual times but also intraindividual times, to which

different functions and different rhythms are attached, depending on the system of reference. Solenn

Kermarrec and Khaddouj Moogli, for instance, have highlighted the importance of differentiating

between – and respecting - the judicial time frame and the time frame of psychic elaboration in

adolescent offenders. The chronological age of an individual can also interfere, as shown in this special

issue by Ludovic Gicquel for anorexia nervosa, with the evolution of a disease generating different

time scales. According to this author, anorexia nervosa lies at the intersection between two time scales:

adolescence, in which intense physiological and psychological upheavals occur within a relatively short

space of time, and the chronic evolution of the disease over the course of the patient’s lifespan. We

should never lose sight of the fact that there are different temporal dimensions, depending on our

choice of points of reference, and each of them is therefore subjective. Each one belongs to a coherent

system with its own indicators which can not be applied to another temporal dimension. It follows that

as these indicators relate to their own particular temporal dimension only, they cannot be used as

absolute references. A body movement taken as a reference will be central to the temporal dimension it

defines; if that body stops, time in that specific dimension will be "suspended" or "frozen", even though

it continues to flow in other temporal dimensions. Thus, when the temperature of a human body is

lowered or an animal goes into hibernation, its internal biological rhythms and cellular ageing

processes slow down and may even stop, but in the outside world, chronometric time (hours, minutes,

seconds) continues to run its course… Times therefore differ according to which system of reference

we adopt, with physiological time being distinct from but coexisting with chronometric time, which can

be measured using a variety of methods and techniques (mechanical clocks, atomic clocks, optical

clocks, etc.). The next section focuses on the whole concept of measuring time.

Measuring Time

Representations of time and time measurements are subjective constructs that are shaped by

history, beliefs - including religious ones -, advances in technology and, of course, the system chosen to

refer to time (e.g., solar or lunar calendars, seasonal cycles, but also tools specifically designed to
 4
measure time, using different rhythmicities to define different units of time, such as sundials, clepsydras,

hourglasses, candle clocks, pendulum clocks, etc.). Furthermore, these different systems of reference for

measuring time can run parallel to each other, without being synchronized, at the same period and in the

same location. Atomic time, for instance, which now plays such an important role in our daily lives, not

least by allowing us to use mobile phones (since 1958, world time has been regulated by a Caesium-133

atom, which has a transition frequency of 9 192 631 770 oscillations per second), exists alongside

astronomic time, even though the two are not synchronized (a solar day lasts slightly longer than

twenty-four hours). This cohabitation requires the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems

Service (IERS) to make regular adjustments to compensate for this time lag, by adding time (e.g., the

final minute of 30 June 2012 lasted 61 seconds), which can result in the occasional leap second

computer bug… This brings us back to the Arman sculpture, mentioned earlier, that shows the

cohabitation of different clocks. However, unlike Arman, however, who entitled his artwork L’Heure de

Tous (i.e., different times for different individuals), a more appropriate title for the idea presented here

would be Toutes les Heures (i.e., different times for the same individual)…However, the various ways

to measure time share some similarities based on the notion of movements repeated in a stable rhythmic

pattern, which enables us to define equal and invariable units of time. There is a discontinuity of time

based on the repetition of time units, but we perceive time as a stream and a uniform dimension leading

to a continuous sense of time. This sense of continuity built from discontinuity is possible because of the

recurrence of identical signals in a regular rhythmic and periodic movement.

Time measurement, based on the repetition of discontnuities at regular intervals, involves also a

spatial representation. Thus, we can visualize the space occupied by the grains of sand in an hourglass,

or the circular route followed by the hands of a watch. It is interesting to note that digital watches,

which preclude the spatial representation of the passage of time, have fallen out of favour and are being

replaced by conventional models with hands. They are nonetheless used when we need to refer to

precise moments in time, though not when we need to position ourselves along a spatiotemporal

trajectory. This trajectory allows us to represent the passage of time to ourselves. More precisely, it is

our own trajectory through space-time, and thus our own motion, including the physiological process of

ageing, that affords us a representation of the passing of time, just as the countryside seems to be

moving past us when we travel in a vehicle. Not that we are conscious of our ageing on a daily basis:

the truth only strikes home, sometimes extremely forcibly, when we compare two snapshots of

ourselves taken at different times in our lives and realize how much we have changed. The illusion of

changelessness probably allows us to avoid being constantly overwhelmed by angst about our
 5
finiteness and impending death. It should be noted that Chinese and Indian societies actually have

circular representations of time, and linear representations of time and its trajectory through space-time

are currently a feature of Western societies. Linear time is individual time, in that it can be brought

down to the scale of a person’s lifetime, and it is physically represented by an arrow flying ineluctably

from the past to the future. Circular time is collective time, and its metaphysical representations go

beyond the life of any single individual, referring to the cyclical, or at least nonlinear, nature of time.

Linear time is related to Heraclitus’ concept that time is a continuously flowing stream: “No one steps

into the same river twice.” (Heraclitus, Fragments, 2011). Circular or cyclical time can be related to

Platon’s concept of time as “The moving image of the constant eternity.” (Platon, Timée, 37d). This is

a modern and interesting concept given what was written on mental representations of time in the first

section (on the subjectivity of time).

But why do we humans feel this recurrent need to measure time? For a start, measuring time

with concrete, tangible and consensual indicators is a way of objectivizing it and giving it existence.

Furthermore, it allows us to plan rituals that are repeated on a regular, cyclical basis, at clearly defined

periods, and which strengthen social bonds (festivals, start of the new school year, etc.) or religious ties

(e.g., prayers). There are economic reasons, too, which have resulted in a series of technological

innovations down the ages. For example, while solar calendars and sundials sufficed for farmers,

clocks of various kinds had to be invented for people who worked during the hours of darkness. The

need to measure working hours prompted the introduction of mechanical clocks in the 18th century,

while the advent of shiftwork in factories during the Industrial Revolution led to a drive for ever more

accurate timekeeping in the 19th century. Time measurement can also serve as an instrument of power.

Thus, in the 13th century, religious power, with times set aside for prayer throughout the day, was

relegated to second place by social and economic power. Henceforth, the secular time of merchants and

craftsmen would run alongside religious time, with bells ringing out at different times. This is yet

another example of how different times can coexist, each referring to its own value system and

rhythmicity. Secular time had its own subdivisions. For instance, the evening bell was rung earlier for

weavers than it was for other workers. Similarly, the times shown on public clocks could vary not only

from one town to another, but also within the same town. These multiple times were to prevail until the

19th century, when the arrival of the railway, providing a welcome fillip to the local economy, required

all the clocks to be synchronized. Even then, both for religious and for secular times, there was an

intermediate period when railway time, be it London Time (i.e., Greenwich Mean Time) or Paris Mean

Time, coexisted with local time, such that station clocks had to have two faces. There had been
 6
previous instances of timepieces being adapted to allow different time measurement systems to cohabit.

For instance, when the French Revolution introduced decimal time, where each day was divided into

ten hours, each hour lasting 100 minutes and each minute 100 seconds, watches were designed with

two rings of numbers (10 hours for revolutionary decimal time and 2 x 12 hours for conventional time).

All these historical examples show clearly the possible cohabition of different reference systems for

measuring time. However, as each system has its own function and its own rhythmicity, it is important

to define precisely what reference system is used and to avoid mixing the indicators of two different

reference systems, for the sake of inter- or intraindividual coherence.

Lastly, time measurement satisfies our need to keep tabs on time and even control it, thereby

alleviating our anxiety about death and the “eternal silence of these infinite spaces” (Pascal, Les

Pensées, Garnier Flammarion, 1993). Back in the Middle Ages, bells (the English word “clock”, like its

German equivalent “Glocke”, derived from the Middle Dutch word meaning “bell”) lent rhythm to

people’s daily lives, ringing out at eight different times, the first at dawn, the last in the middle of the

night. Their three-day silence at Easter was enough to give some people the impression that the end of

the world was near. Strikingly, it was the same bells that regulated their days when they were alive that

tolled for them when they were dead, announcing to the whole community that it had lost one of its

members (twice for a women and three times for a man). The bells gave them not just their temporal

bearings, but also, and perhaps above all, a means of controlling infinity by lending a rhythmic pattern

to life and death within the community. This takes us neatly on to the importance of the physiological

rhythms that start while we are still in the womb, and which sign our death warrant when they stop –

most emblematically our hearbeat. Albert Goldbeter (2010), director of the Chronobiology Unit at the

Bruxelles sciences University, underlines that life is rhythm…

Importance of rhythmicity

The mammalian circadian rhythms system can be seen as a network of circadian clocks;

melatonin produced in the pineal helps regulate human circadian and has an important role in the

ontogenetic establishment of diurnal rhythms (Pevet and Challet, 2011). This circadian network permits

optimal and anticipatory temporal organization of biological functions in relation to periodic variations

of the environment. Thus, the circadian rhythms allow physiological and behavioral adaptation to

environmental changes (cyclic fluctuations of light and darkness, etc.). As underlined by Geoffroy and

collaborators, abnormal circadian rhythms are common in bipolar disorder and represent potential

relevant markers of susceptibility to the disorder, especially for early-onset biolar disorder (EOBD).

Indeed, higher frequency of sleeping problems and, in particular, problems falling asleep, have been
 7
observed in EOBD. Geoffroy and collaborators suggested that the use of age at onset as a specifier may

be of interest in the identification of susceptibility genes and circadian biological markers as well as in

treatment decision algorithms.

Maternal physiological rhythms play a major part in fetal development. We can postulate that

stable, repeated stimuli in the form of physiological rhythms, associated with cross-modal perception,

allow the fetus to integrate sensory information and develop a coherent representation of his or her

internal and external environment. As emphasized by Ciccone, rhythms participate to the establishment

of a secure base. These rhythmic experiences are set in early infancy (e.g., rhythmic experiences of

feeding), and even started before, in the womb (e.g., experiences of sound and rhythm perceived in

utero by the fetus). To generate a secure sense of being, the individual’s internal physiological rhythms

must be attuned to the environmental rhythms. These internal and external rhythms allow individuals to

develop their experience of self and of their environment, and to build therefore body-self

representation and psychic organization. It is through the regular repetition of identical sequences of

discontinuity, such as the circadian rhythms that are already present during the fetus life, that a

continuum is constructed, together with the sense of continuing existence. Conversely, based on

clinical observations in autism, we could say that children with autism create discontinuity out of

continuity. Many of these children need to create discontinuity that is repeated at regular intervals,

which could have been fundamentally lacking in their physiological development. Thus, Albert

Ciccone suggested that there might be a lack of secure rhythms in children with autism and they would

cling to rhythmic forms such as those created by their stereotyped behaviors, in an attempt to get a

rhythmicity that will afford them basic security. Identical patterns, through a stable rhythm repeated at

regular intervals, allow to face up to anxiety about definitive loss and disappearance, and therefore to

face up to fears of death. Repetitive behaviors could be seen as an attempt to produce repeated

sequences in order to compensate the lack of daily rhythmicity and synchronized rhythms due to the

low melatonin production reported in autism spectrum disorders (Tordjman et al., 2012). Our finding

(Tordjman et al., 2012) observed in a sample of 43 adolescents and young adults with autistic disorder

(nocturnal excretion of 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin was significantly negatively correlated with repetitive use

of objects) taken together with other studies (for a review, see Tordjman et al. 2012) and with

improvement of stereotyped behaviors following administration of melatonin in children and

adolescents with autism spectrum disorders, support this hypothesis. Furthermore, nocturnal excretion

of melatonin was significantly correlated with severity of autistic impairments in verbal communication

and play (Tordjman et al., 2012). The role of melatonin on daily rhythmicity and synchronization of
 8
rhythms suggests that melatonin might be involved in motor, emotional and relational synchrony. In

line with the hypothesis of ergodicity (Molenaar and Campbell, 2009), relationships might exist

between cellular communication networks involving a cellular synchrony (synchronization of cellular

oscillations) and early social communication development involving a synchrony of motor, emotional

and relational rhythms. Xavier and collaborators highlighted the importance of rhythmicity and

synchrony in the development of children’s imitative exchanges with peers. This sheds a new light on

the relationships between melatonin and verbal communication or social imitative play in autistic

disorder. Abnormal melatonin production might impair the development of communication and

socialization that are two main domains of autistic disorder. Stereotyped behaviors and interests are

parts of the third domain of autistic disorder and, as suggested previously, repetitive behaviors could be

seen as an attempt to compensate the lack of rhythmicity. Finally, blunted circadian rhythmicity

reported in autistic disorder (Tordjman et al., 2012) with no or little variability, might be related to the

difficulties in adapting to changes typically observed in individuals with autism. Taken all together,

autistic disorder could be seen as a disorder of rhythmicity with, more specifically, an impairment in

the synchrony of rhythms. In this special issue, Botbol and collaborators propose an integrative

approach to study desynchronization in biological and psychological rhythms in autistic disorder and

develop an etiopathogenic hypothesis based on this integrative approach. Golombek and collaborators

describe very well effects of circadian desynchronization—including metabolic, immune and cognitive

alterations—that can enhance susceptibility to certain disorders such as cancer. Touitou underlines the

public health problem of sleep disorders (and their consequences) in adolescents induced by rhythm

desynchronization. Furthermore, the relationships between biological rhythms and aggression are

discussed in Bronsard and Bartolomei’s article. This opens important therapeutic perspectives (based

on light exposure, use of chronobiotics and regularly scheduled bedtime and wake up, meals or

activities) for mental health as well as for overall health and quality of life. Further studies are required

to better ascertain the mechanisms involved in physiological alterations induced by temporal

desynchronization and to better understand the role of biological rhythms and rhythmicity in the

development of social communication and adaptation to changes.

References

Bergson, H., 1998. Durée et simultanéité. PUF, Paris.

Goldbeter, A., 2010. La vie oscillatoire. Odile Jacob, Paris.

Molenaar, P.C.M., Campbell, C.G., 2009. The new person-specific paradigm in psychology. Curr. Dir.

Psychol. Science 18(2), 112-117.

 9
Pevet, P., Challet, E., 2011. Melatonin: Both master clock output and internal time-giver in the

circadian clocks network. J. of Physiology Paris 105, 170-182.

Tordjman, S., Anderson, G.M., Bellissant, E., Botbol, M., Charbuy, H., Camus, F., Graignic, R.,

Kermarrec, S., Fougerou, C., Cohen, D., Touitou, Y., 2012. Day and Nighttime Excretion of 6-

Sulphatoxymelatonin in Adolescents and Young Adults with Austistic Disorder.

Psychoneuroendocrinology 37, 1990-1997.

Professor Sylvie Tordjman, M.D., Ph.D.

Laboratoire de la Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS UMR 8158, Université Paris-Descartes, France

Chef du Pôle Hospitalo-Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’Enfant et de l’Adolescent (PHUPEA),

Université de Rennes 1, CHGR, 154 rue de Châtillon, Rennes 35 000, France
Tel: (011 33)6 15 38 07 48, Fax: (011 33)2 99 64 18 07.
E-mail address: s.tordjman@yahoo.fr