Here, But Not Now - Society

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

The simplest division of people in relation to time sounds somewhat pathetic, but this does not lose its fundamental significance - this is the division into those who are alive and those who are no longer with us. And it is difficult to disagree with the fact that this is the very exact classification of people "in time", from which, by and large, follow all other human attempts to define themselves in relation to this ephemeral given.

WE ARE IN TIME

A more detailed consideration of various variants of human types in relation to time is worth starting with the division of people proposed by Professor Dmitry Leontyev into those living “in time” and living “out of time”. By and large, this classification determines how much a person feels the unity of time within himself, how much for him the transition from the past to the future is presented as a continuous process of change.

People living "in time" just feel their life at the point of intersection of two interconnected movements - where a person "moves from the past through the present to the future, and the world - from the future through the present to the past."

Those who live "out of time" tend to be "stuck" in the past, present or future. They either live on memories of a good or bad past, are afraid of the future and do not have the strength and courage to live in the present, or they become so ideal performers of psychological recommendations about life "here and now" that they lose the ability to plan their actions, build a life perspective, and exist according to the principle of "stimulus - reaction". "Walkers" into the future are so detached from everyday realities that for them elementary existence in the present becomes problematic or "unimportant". By the way, whole nations and countries can be in the state of “outcasts” - let's just remember what the recent massive construction of a “bright future” has led to in the conditions of a gray present and a dark past.

FREEDOM IN TIME

Psychotherapist Natalya Grigorovskaya divided people into three types, which differ among themselves in "the degree of their temporary freedom."

For representatives of the first type, time is "a cruel external force that suppresses or urges." Such people live in the present, they "capture" a small part of their experience and make plans only for the near future.

Representatives of the second type feel much freer in time. For them, time is a "converging or diverging spiral." They are focused on the future, successfully make plans, can use the opportunities contained in the events taking place with them, have creative thinking, which allows them to find various options for solving problems.

The third type "has the greatest number of degrees of freedom in time." Such people are able to use flexible but goal-oriented behavioral strategies that help solve different types of creative problems using a variety of thinking strategies. They live "here and now", but at the same time they are able to simultaneously experience the past, present and future, concentrating these experiences in one place, that is, in many ways they resemble people living "in time" from the above classification of Leontiev.

OWN TIME UNIT

The most interesting and unique in its kind classification of man in accordance with his "internal unit of time" was created by the Odessa professor Boris Tsukanov.

The fact is that a person by nature has his own, internal unit of time, the range of which for different people fits in the interval from 0.7 to 1.1 seconds. This time interval actually fixes how a person perceives and experiences the "present moment", that is, what is the duration of "present time" for him. Technically, this is defined by how a person “feels” (experiences) a one-second time span.

Based on the internal unit of time, Boris Tsukanov identified three "tau-types": "hurrying", "accurate" and "slow" individuals. Along the way, it turned out that the majority (about 80%) of people belong to the "hurry" individuals, the "slow" ones make up 8%, and the "exact" ones - about 12%. Which, by the way, leads to some reflections on the constant "acceleration" of the pace of our life.

That is, people actually live in “present time” of different lengths. And even if the difference is tenths of a second, nevertheless, this minimal temporary deviation generates, according to the theory of Boris Tsukanov, significant changes in many areas of human life.

INTERNAL TIME AND TEMPERAMENT TYPES

In further research it turned out that representatives of different "tau-types" are remarkably distributed according to different types of temperament. In his book "Time in the human psyche" Professor Boris Tsukanov gives a description of these types.

Choleroid group. Representatives of this group are extremely "hurrying" individuals and live in a constant subjective lack of time. Time seems to be "flying" for them, and they need to keep up with it. They are looking into the future, they want to quickly achieve their goals. No wonder Pavlov called them "unrestrained" types.

Sanguinoid group. Its representatives - "hurrying" individuals - also live in a subjective lack of time. For them, time is running, so they are afraid of not being in time. The future for them is desirable, interesting, they want to bring it closer faster, to see it as it is imagined. According to Pavlov, these are "live" types.

Melancholoid group. Individuals of this group do not experience a subjective lack of time. Time for them "stands", they seem to be inhibited and immobilized in it. They are oriented towards the past. These are "brake" types according to Pavlov.

Phlegmatoid group. Representatives of this group do not experience a subjective lack of time. They have "excess time" because it goes "slowly and evenly." They are attached to the past. Pavlov called them "calm" types.

The book highlights another, rarely found - "equilibrium" - type of temperament, for the representatives of which "time" does not go very quickly, therefore in life it is "almost enough". They have no future or past orientation, and they prefer to live in the present."

"BIOLOGICAL CLOCK" INDIVIDUAL

The author connects belonging to a certain "tau-type" with the work of a person's internal "biological clock". And in one of the sections of the book, it clearly demonstrates the relationship between belonging to the "tau type" and periods of a person's cardiac activity, as well as the duration of his respiratory cycle, individual periods of wakefulness and sleep, productivity of cognitive activity and musical talent.

Moreover, relying on the results of studies of patients with problems in the work of the cardiovascular system, Boris Tsukanov talks about the presence of a "central clock" in a person and the possibility of predicting a "large biological cycle" of a person. That is, in fact, about the possibility of predicting health problems at different periods of a person's life.

To be convincing, I can say that I personally know the doctor of psychological sciences, who is still grateful to the late Boris Iosifovich for acquaintance with the method of his diagnosis, which helped him not so long ago to go through the crisis period of his life with “minimal losses”. Simply put, a respected professor who got into a band of life problems and troubles, knowing that he was in a dangerous period of life according to Tsukanov's periodization, sought medical help in advance and got off with “preventive treatment” at the moment when he had every chance of dying from a heart attack.