Time, Temporality, and Chronoception in Forensic Psychological Practice

This chapter explores the occupational realities of forensic psychologists who work in prisons as they relate to the issues of time, temporality, and chronoception. Here I make the distinction between the passage and recording of change (time), the positionality that one holds in relation to time (temporality), and the experience of time/change (chronoception). The paper will focus on three particular areas of practice: The first is concerned with how forensic psychologists experience time in their day-to-day working lives. The second relates to how time and temporality as sensorially rich and potentially dynamic concepts exist in the static and flattened official reports that psychologists write. Lastly, I explore the complex issues of temporality that exist in the interviews conducted by the psychologists with prisoners, where they occupy a shared present but are discussing both historical matters and issues that exist in some unknowable future.