Temporal Disturbance in the Case of Maya: Musical Dissonance and the Failure of Future Vision

ABSTRACT

Time is troubled for my patient Maya and for me with her. This article describes the nature of the temporal disturbance, as well as the process by which I have come to understand it. Two metaphors help me to define the temporal problems for Maya and for us: music and future vision. Musical dissonance—failures in harmonic expectations, in rhythm and timing, and in responsiveness and temporal direction—provide an analogy for problems between Maya and me. And the collapse of future vision—the projection of a person into an imagined future—is an idea that captures important difficulties in our analytic work.

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Joye Weisel-Barth

Joye Weisel-Barth, Ph.D., Psy.D., is a Senior Instructor, Training Analyst and Supervising Analyst, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles; Book Review Editor, Psychoanalysis, Self and Context; and Associate Editor, Psychoanalytic Dialogues.