BRIEF C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

INNER SPACE A N D THE EINSTEINIAN CONCEPT OF TIME

Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.
Albert Einstein

In a previous paper 1 I described the associations of a young man in treat-

ment and my interpretation of their meaning. He had described his early
experience of separation in terms of the angry and devastating explosion of
the original monolithic atom of the Universe. With time, though, he began to
encounter the Universe as a bit more friendly, containing a number of good as
well as bad objects, and sad ness even became a feeling he cou Id occasional ly
tolerate.
One day I reminded him of the approaching weekend break. His remarka-
ble reply is the subject of this paper. His statement was exactly:

t'=t 1
C2

He did not feel like elaborating, but did explain its terms. The equation
expressed the relativistic concept of time: " i f the relative velocity (v) of two
observers approaches the speed of light (c), it appears to each that the other's
time processes are slowed down. Observer A reads his own time as t and
Observer B's time as t'." He spoke this in a soft and clear voice and then fell
sadly silent.
I think the patient was trying to say this: as he felt "enlightened" by
treatment (approached the speed of light) he needed to invoke this equation to
slow down the other observer's (my) time processes. It was essential to
preserve time, saturate it, and thus slow my departure.
His only other association during that hour was "Something's moving," a
quotation remembered beneath a photograph of Albert Einstein--a feeling
which while capturing the surprise and exhilaration of "moving ahead"
barely concealed the fearful and lonely anticipation of separation.
In addition to a need to alter the concept of time, very often a patient also
needs to modify the concept of space. As a person feels "enlightened" by
The American Journal of Psychoanalysis Vol. 39, No. 1, 1979
© 1979 Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis 0002-9548/79/010081-03501.00

81
82 BRIEF C O M M U N I C A T I O N S

psychoanalysis and his psychic space expands, one might imagine the mental
equivalent of two other relativistic principles, both of which are corollaries to
the time dilatation equation. Thus, if the relative velocity (v) of two observers
approaches the speed of light (c), it appears to each that the other's length
contracts and mass increases according to:
the Fitzgerald-Lorentz Contraction 2 (p. 54)
•~ / V2
/' =/ 1
C2

and the mass increase equation 2 (p. 57)

m

V2
m'= 1 - ,
C2

Here we define I' as the length Observer A obtains from Observer B. Observer
B's original length is represented as I. Observer A obtains the value m' for
Observer B's mass, and Observer B's original or rest mass is m.
To each observer, then, the other appears smaller and heavier. Since the
Universe is expanding (and the speed of expansion increases with distance),
the space around each observer appears proportionately greater. This
phenomenon is very similar to Bion's description of the psychoanalytic
process as summarized by Grinberg, et al.: "No matter how long a
psychoanalytic treatment lasts, it always represents the beginning of an inves-
tigation which stimulates growth in the area being investigated: the knowl-
edge of psychic reality. When a person has finished his analysis his knowl-
edge about himself is greater than when he started, but if we observe the
relation between what he knows about himself and his psychic reality, which
has also been growing during the psychoanalytic process, the relative propor-
tion of his knowledge is probably smaller. ''3 (p. 199)
Perhaps now we can more readily appreciate the patient's associations. No
wonder he desired to slow the time processes of important objects and delay
their departure. As his psychic reality expanded, he experienced both himself
and others as smaller and heavier (weighted down with feeling), and he feared
subsiding into ever more drastically enlarging space. His communication

t' = t I/ 1
C2

expressed the painful need to slow what he imagined to be our headlong flight
 BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS 83

away from each other and to keep us within, as he put it, "the delicate
pressure of each other's starlight."

Acknowledgment
Special thanks to Kay Rowland, Ph.D., for her help with this paper.

References
1. Faguet, R. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Am J. Psychoanal., 38:359-360, 1978.
2. Coleman, J. Relativity for the Layman. New York: New American Library, 1958
3. Grinberg, L., Sor, D., and de Bianchedi, E. Introduction to the Work of Bion. New York: Jason
Aronson, 1977.

Robert A. Faguet, M . D .

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