Abstract

ABREU, Scheherazade Paes de  and  IANNINI, Gilson. The time that isn´t: an essay on the timeless unconscious. Reverso [online]. 2025, vol.47, n.89, pp.93-104.  Epub Oct 24, 2025. ISSN 0102-7395.  https://doi.org/10.5935/0102-7395.v47n89.11.

This article investigates the Freudian concept of the timelessness of the unconscious, analyzing its epistemological and clinical implications. Based on fundamental texts by Freud-Letter 52 (1896), Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Culture and Its Discontents (1930), Lecture 31 (1933), Finite and Infinite Analysis (1937), and Moses and Monotheism (1939)-, we seek to clarify how the notion of timelessness operates in relation to psychic survivals and fixation points. The central problem discussed here is the paradox presented by Freud: how can something essentially timeless (the unconscious) undergo periodic reorganizations while preserving, side by side, invariant elements and elements that change and transform over time? Our main hypothesis is that timelessness does not exclude time, but manifests itself precisely through the points of drive fixation, requiring constant rereading. The aim of this article is to examine the consequences of this Freudian thesis for contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.

Keywords : timelessness; unconscious; fixation; metapsychology..

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