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After having established a framework of psychoanalytic theory so as to define the concept of psychic temporality, this article presents the initial results of a university research project comparing access to psychic temporality for two groups (one with borderline functioning, the other a control group), each comprising fifteen adolescents. The study uses a projective methodology and involves the construction of an assessment grid of specific indices. The results indicate overall that there is indeed a difference, when using the Rorschach and TAT protocols, between the adolescents with borderline functioning and those in the control group as regards their access to psychic temporality. The results thus confirm the hypotheses proposed at the beginning of the research. The authors illustrate these results with the help of the protocols of two typical subjects in the sample. This study offers projective test clinicians supplementary tools for the understanding of adolescent psychic functioning. It also facilitates the establishment of a differential diagnosis between normal-neurotic and borderline functioning individuals, thanks to this perspective that is rarely studied in projective clinical work and now has an operational use.