PsychologicalReports, 1990, 67, 1217-1218. O Psychological Reports 1990
O F TIME AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ' MARVIN GOLDWERT
New York Institute of Technology Summary.-Emphasizing the importance of time as the medium for both historical and psychological analysis, this paper traces the ego's consciousness of time from childhood to adulthood. This evolution is climaxed in late adolescence by the development of historical perspective, and thereafter the ego fuses time and history through a form of artistic reconstruction.
Time is to history what space is to physics and mathematics (Spengler, 1962). As the medium through which the past is conceived, an understanding of time is both crucial to history and psychology. I n this respect, it is a source of "frustration" to researchers that "so f a r . . . no one has found the 'clock' in the brain that is responsible for our ability to measure the passage of time" (Rose, 1988, p. 12). However, the Freudian concept of the development of ego-consciousness provides a useful key for understanding the evolution of our understanding of time (Jones, 1957, 111). As the growing child becomes increasingly conscious of his d e u , his ego begins to dominate his environment. At first, all of the elements of his observed milieu-parents and playmates, residence and playthngs-are part of his private world, existing solely for his own use. The idea that these environmental objects existed prior to the child seems to him "preposterous . . . The world is; there has been no past" (Gustavson, 1955, p. 12). The passage of time, however, beg~nsto be meaningful to a child as he adjusts to the daily routine of the home. By age five he becomes conscious of today, yesterday, and tomorrow, although not even a seven-year-old is able to conceive of the past as an abstract idea (Gustavson, 1955). Around the eighth year, he develops the capacity to "reconstruct events in a correct time sequence and the idea of an abstract unit of time as the basis for a perspective of time corresponding to the adult have come into being. The stability of time assessment increases with age" (Eysenck, 1972, 111, p. 325). By Age 11, most children can "understand the subdivisions of history and the possibility of an extended series of successive ages" (Gustavson, 1955, p. 13). While the ego increases in consciousness at that time, it still falls short of the full capacity to grasp historical evolution. For the new adolescent still is unable to envision duration, the deep sense of time's flow, and the interconnected nature of historical episodes. I n an optimum sense, a climax in the ego's voyage in time-conscious'Address correspondence to Marvin Goldwert, Ph.D., School of Humanities, New York Institute of Technology, 1855 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.
1218
M. GOLDWERT
ness occurs in late adolescence (16 to 17 yr.), where there is a "shift of emphasis from experiencing, questioning, and experimenting to integrating . . . such a resolution involves the development of historical perspective that relates to an understanding of the irreversibility of events and the significant cause-and-effect relationships in society" (Smith, 1974, p. 68). Often the late adolescent develops such an historical . perspective from the collision between his own youthful idealism and the realities as well as intransigencies of conditions inherited from the historical past (Smith, 1974). In adulthood and later life, a form of art provides the bridge between historical perspective and psychological insight. This is true because in both disciplines-history and psychology-the past is annexed to the present by a form of artistic reconstruction. As Barzun and Graff have written, "History is not simply an academic subject among others but one of the ways in which we think" (Barzun & Graff, 1977, p. 7). This applies to both the history of a society or a therapist's case-history of a patient. That the historical observer-be he historian or psychologist-can, only to a limited extent, scientif i c d y reconstruct the past, was long ago recognized by H. S. Sullivan, who depicted the psychotherapist as a "participant-observer," conscious of his own psychological history as he enters the nexus of the patient's past (Sullivan, 1954). The foregoing contention, that art is the time-bridge between historical perspective and psychological insight, finds its most definitive champion in philosopher Andrew l? Ushenko. Commenting on Marcel Proust, Ushenko has boldly declared (Ushenko, 1953, pp. 142-143): "Art . . . transforms the way of practical life by opening our eyes upon the dimension of time that stretches backward to annex the past to the present, and since time is the texture of reality art-not life . . .-brings us into touch with what is real." Hence, the evolution of the ego's time-consciousness, from the child's first gropings in the crib to the great historical and psychological constructs of the adult, is a form of lifetime artistic creation. REFERENCES BARZUN,J., & GRAFF, H. F. The modern researcher. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1977. H. J. Encyclopedia of psychology. Vol. 111. New York: Seabury Press, 1972. EYSENCK, GUSTAVSON, C. G. A preface to hirtory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955. JONES,E. The Ige and work of Sigmzmd Freud. Vol. 111. New York: Basic Books, 1957. ROSE,K. J. The body in time. New York: Wiey, 1988. S m , M. B. Humanizing social psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1974. SPENGLFX, 0 . The decline ofthe West. New York: Modern Library, 1962. SULLIVAN, H. S. The psychiatric intewiew. New York: Norton, 1954. USI~ENKO, A. Dynamics of art. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univer. Press, 1953.
Accepted December 14, 1990.
O F TIME AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ' MARVIN GOLDWERT
New York Institute of Technology Summary.-Emphasizing the importance of time as the medium for both historical and psychological analysis, this paper traces the ego's consciousness of time from childhood to adulthood. This evolution is climaxed in late adolescence by the development of historical perspective, and thereafter the ego fuses time and history through a form of artistic reconstruction.
Time is to history what space is to physics and mathematics (Spengler, 1962). As the medium through which the past is conceived, an understanding of time is both crucial to history and psychology. I n this respect, it is a source of "frustration" to researchers that "so f a r . . . no one has found the 'clock' in the brain that is responsible for our ability to measure the passage of time" (Rose, 1988, p. 12). However, the Freudian concept of the development of ego-consciousness provides a useful key for understanding the evolution of our understanding of time (Jones, 1957, 111). As the growing child becomes increasingly conscious of his d e u , his ego begins to dominate his environment. At first, all of the elements of his observed milieu-parents and playmates, residence and playthngs-are part of his private world, existing solely for his own use. The idea that these environmental objects existed prior to the child seems to him "preposterous . . . The world is; there has been no past" (Gustavson, 1955, p. 12). The passage of time, however, beg~nsto be meaningful to a child as he adjusts to the daily routine of the home. By age five he becomes conscious of today, yesterday, and tomorrow, although not even a seven-year-old is able to conceive of the past as an abstract idea (Gustavson, 1955). Around the eighth year, he develops the capacity to "reconstruct events in a correct time sequence and the idea of an abstract unit of time as the basis for a perspective of time corresponding to the adult have come into being. The stability of time assessment increases with age" (Eysenck, 1972, 111, p. 325). By Age 11, most children can "understand the subdivisions of history and the possibility of an extended series of successive ages" (Gustavson, 1955, p. 13). While the ego increases in consciousness at that time, it still falls short of the full capacity to grasp historical evolution. For the new adolescent still is unable to envision duration, the deep sense of time's flow, and the interconnected nature of historical episodes. I n an optimum sense, a climax in the ego's voyage in time-conscious'Address correspondence to Marvin Goldwert, Ph.D., School of Humanities, New York Institute of Technology, 1855 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.
1218
M. GOLDWERT
ness occurs in late adolescence (16 to 17 yr.), where there is a "shift of emphasis from experiencing, questioning, and experimenting to integrating . . . such a resolution involves the development of historical perspective that relates to an understanding of the irreversibility of events and the significant cause-and-effect relationships in society" (Smith, 1974, p. 68). Often the late adolescent develops such an historical . perspective from the collision between his own youthful idealism and the realities as well as intransigencies of conditions inherited from the historical past (Smith, 1974). In adulthood and later life, a form of art provides the bridge between historical perspective and psychological insight. This is true because in both disciplines-history and psychology-the past is annexed to the present by a form of artistic reconstruction. As Barzun and Graff have written, "History is not simply an academic subject among others but one of the ways in which we think" (Barzun & Graff, 1977, p. 7). This applies to both the history of a society or a therapist's case-history of a patient. That the historical observer-be he historian or psychologist-can, only to a limited extent, scientif i c d y reconstruct the past, was long ago recognized by H. S. Sullivan, who depicted the psychotherapist as a "participant-observer," conscious of his own psychological history as he enters the nexus of the patient's past (Sullivan, 1954). The foregoing contention, that art is the time-bridge between historical perspective and psychological insight, finds its most definitive champion in philosopher Andrew l? Ushenko. Commenting on Marcel Proust, Ushenko has boldly declared (Ushenko, 1953, pp. 142-143): "Art . . . transforms the way of practical life by opening our eyes upon the dimension of time that stretches backward to annex the past to the present, and since time is the texture of reality art-not life . . .-brings us into touch with what is real." Hence, the evolution of the ego's time-consciousness, from the child's first gropings in the crib to the great historical and psychological constructs of the adult, is a form of lifetime artistic creation. REFERENCES BARZUN,J., & GRAFF, H. F. The modern researcher. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, 1977. H. J. Encyclopedia of psychology. Vol. 111. New York: Seabury Press, 1972. EYSENCK, GUSTAVSON, C. G. A preface to hirtory. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955. JONES,E. The Ige and work of Sigmzmd Freud. Vol. 111. New York: Basic Books, 1957. ROSE,K. J. The body in time. New York: Wiey, 1988. S m , M. B. Humanizing social psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1974. SPENGLFX, 0 . The decline ofthe West. New York: Modern Library, 1962. SULLIVAN, H. S. The psychiatric intewiew. New York: Norton, 1954. USI~ENKO, A. Dynamics of art. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Univer. Press, 1953.
Accepted December 14, 1990.
