We are slaves of time. Our bawling entry into the world and our silent exit are logged to the minute and the seconds beat away like a relentless galley drum. The span of an ordinary life is long from the perspective of youth and anything seems possible, but we soon see the lie and our relationship with time changes. Time, we realise, is a disciplinarian, cajoling, bullying and finally running out on us. According to the internet “Death Clock” , I have an estimated 932,405,270 seconds of my life remaining . . . 69 . . . 68.

You can look at it as passive victim — or seize control. Time is physical and psychological. We can’t stop or reverse it, but we can to an extent shape its psychological consequences. The first step is realising how deeply ingrained is time in our sense of self. We may possess consciousness of isolated moments but “personhood” implies a voyage from past to future. We use the frameworks of time to bundle and store experience; it gives order and meaning. What we are now also beginning to realise is that our personal attitudes — our “time perspectives” — may be fundamental to psychological wellbeing.

Philip Zimbardo, a pioneer of the psychology of time, has identified six important time orientations. A “past-negative” outlook spotlights unpleasant experiences that can still upset us. It can foster regret and bitterness. A “past-positive” view has rosier scenes. It’s linked with happy relationships, but the downside is overcautiousness. Hedonism and fatalism are key attitudes to the present. “Present-hedonistic” types are driven by the pleasure principle (eat, drink and be merry), an attitude often associated with taking risks and unhealthy lifestyles. “Present-fatalistic” personalities are marked by more negative views of the present and feelings of helplessness about the future, which tends towards anxiety and depression. “Future orientation” locks on to future goals that, if the need for achievement is acute, can be stressful. Too much investment in the future can come at significant cost to the present within terms of damage to relationships and recreation. Then there is the “transcendental-future” orientation, which reflects belief (or otherwise) in a life after death, which affects how we live in the present. Distortions of time perception are linked with psychological disorder. Time passes too slowly in depression, too quickly in mania. Obsessionality, perhaps, reflects too keen a focus on the future, anxiety on the past.

Zimbardo claims that his research is leading towards new forms of psychotherapy whose central objective will be the recalibration of time perspective.

You can plot your profile with the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (thetimeparadox.com). Reassuringly I’m a past-positive, present-hedonistic, future-oriented guy. It was my son’s wedding on Saturday and I read Philip Larkin’s An Arundel Tomb at the ceremony. It’s about tenderness and time. It closes with the line What will survive of us is love, which always brings a tear to my eye. Perhaps that makes me a transcendental-futurist after all.

Paul Broks is senior lecturer in psychology (clinical) at the University of Plymouth