Time sense following psychic trauma: A clinical study of ten adults and twenty children.

Abstract

Time sense following psychic trauma was evaluated in a study of 30 children and adults. Misperceptions of duration and sequencing of time and of events were found to be common, and many subjects retrospectively found significance in prior episodes or thoughts, forming omens; several minimized their futures, demonstrating problems with time perspective. Explanations for these phenomena are offered, and examples from literature and folklore are cited.