At the Crossroads of Times for a Transcultural Clinic: Between Psychic Subjectivity and Institutional Requirements

<i>Introduction: </i>In psychiatry, the therapeutic act is not limited to the administration of treatment. It unfolds in a temporal dimension which goes beyond simple chronological measurement. The psychiatric institution is a care system acting as a space of reconfiguration, offering a framework where subjectivity can be reorganized. However, contemporary psychiatry is crossed by a tension of time between: that of the patient, that of care and that of the hospital organization, subject to logistical and managerial constraints. Between an African heritage where time is experienced in circularity and the linear Western model, oriented towards efficiency, the mix of both seems disturbing. <i>Methodology: </i>Through this article adopting a critical and comparative stance around this question, the authors plead for an ethics of time in care. A review of the literature was carried out through a targeted selection of studies. It was at the junction of anthropological and philosophical theories but also of the psychiatric clinic. Indeed, the professional experiences of the authors also made it possible to carry out an analysis of the areas of shock and overlap. The objective was to put in place a reflection in order to give “time” its therapeutic value at the crossroads of different cultural frameworks. <i>Conclusion: </i>Psychiatric care is a complex weave of temporalities that can conflict, but also harmonize. At the crossroads of cultures, the caregiver is led to allow everyone to find their own rhythm towards healing. To do this, we must rethink our relationship with what cannot be measured: the silence, the waiting, the duration which is the very heart of care.