Anne Bourgain : signature issues in adolescence

The signature is a complex act which partakes of the trace and of its erasure. Between mimicry and self-affirmation, it allows one to approach the question of the name in the adolescent. By extension, we will explore other modes of signature in adolescence, investigating the relevance of this designation: one can reasonably wonder if it is still a signature. Who signs in adolescence ? To what degree do the various ways of expression, which are often distancing practices, come to « sign » something of the subject ? Above all, this work tries to illustrate the way in which fantasies of self-foundation can both foster and hinder the work of subjectivation, and so doing, open, or not open, the passage.

Adolescence, 2008, T. 26, n°4, pp. 1023-1035.