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Sudden and unpredictable, the event recalls that the present is altogether the continuation of a forgotten past and the crucible of an indistinct future. Time out in the continuum of history, the moment of decision is how the event becomes real and leaves its imprint. The processes, having led to two important reforms, in France and the US, serve to illustrate the respective contributions to social change of critical thought, of debate and clinical analysis, and of political decision making, and the way in which they combine to give rise to the event and give it meaning. Thus, this brief essay attempts to clarify the dialectic relationships between action and process, between rule-making and use of the imaginary.