The Factor of Time in a Psycho-Analysis

I have gone further into psycho-analysis than anyone else has ever done, and so know both what it is capable of and what its limitations are. The most obvious limitation to it is the length of time that it takes. The time factor cannot be bypassed. A psycho-analysis is a process for changing one's important beliefs, and this process cannot be hurried.

Understanding psycho-analysis and the subconscious mind is a very long-term process, since once you begin this journey you will find that many of your important beliefs will change along the way. When an important belief changes, the effects of that change may take weeks and months to work their way through your consciousness. This is a safety procedure. If change occurs too rapidly and you cannot handle it, then some form of chaotic behaviour or psychological disorder may manifest itself. This is most obvious in matters of sexuality: when you begin to replace sexual beliefs based on guilt, shame, and fear with new positive beliefs then you need to go very slowly in order to avoid sexual adventures that you will later regret. 

There are numerous different compartments to our thinking: we divide life up into politics, relationships, religion, science, sexuality, etc. Nevertheless, our beliefs link most or all of these compartments together in various ways. So if I change a belief about politics, then there will be some knock-on effect in my beliefs about religion, relationships, etc. Most changes occur below the level of our awareness, and take a long time. Only in retrospect do we usually realise in what ways we have changed.

Psycho-analysis is rather like a perfect partner. If you become absorbed in it, then there is little else in life that compares with it.

Copyright @2003  Ian Heath
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