Paradoxically, it could be continued, proper time is made possible only through the time of others. Only when a common time is created as a frame of reference, which neither belongs completely to the one or completely to the other nor is occupied by him or her, can the constraint of time at least be loosened, even if it cannot be totally removed. Between two individuals, this presupposes a process of constant development, of negotiation and argument by means of their continued temporal strategies. Many sets of strategies are at the disposal of strategic action in time and through time: accelerating or slowing down; fixing a deadline; promising; waiting and keeping the other waiting; acting at the right moment, deciding or biding one's time. What links these social situations with one another, which recur in countless variants and in which people fix time symbolically, but with real consequences, is the interval. Just like Winnicott's transitional object, the teddy bear or the corner of a cushion which slips between mother and child and becomes a powerful means of symbolizing experience and gaining reality that becomes fundamental to human creativity per se, the interval of time is the basic element for structuring interhuman relations. Waiting and keeping the other waiting, promising, deciding, fixing a deadline – in countless variations and combinations, fighting or loving relationships can be shaped by these. Abolishing the interval would mean abolishing strategy.23 The interval can be consciously and intentionally used; it can result from situations of social inequality or be the expression of power and consolidate the latter. The brilliantly strategic approach to time manifests itself in the interval.
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The Longing for the Moment