Let us associate the « artist’s life » (1880) and the adolescent’s life. Note the creativity, the esthetic ideal, the element of risk and the ephemeral nature of both. Some remarks inspired by the exhibit at the Paris’ Grand Palais entitled « Bohèmes ».
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 753-756.
With Meurtres dans la famille (Murders in the Family), Florian Houssier analyzes the necessity of the primal link between infanticide, parricide and fratricide, unconscious desires, which are organizing and subversive elements in the family bond that oblige the adolescent to elaborate its transforming function.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 745-752.
After providing a socio-anthropological framework for what is called female genital mutilation, a clinical sequence will enable us to examine the deepest unconscious underpinnings of these. Such social practices can shed light on the unconscious foundations of certain clinical manifestations, especially concerning adolescents and their odd « rites of passage ».
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 723-741.
Verbal jousting and ritual insults, seen in adolescent immigrants from French-speaking countries, are a mode of communication and a form of cultural practice. These « digs » are often considered to be an emblem of linguistic incivility and a mark of « street culture ». They seem to originate in a culture of eloquence, derived from the popular traditions of immigrants from francophone Africa. As ritualized play, they help to socialize young people within their peer group.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 711-721.
By means of some statistics, this article will first present the social and socio-economic components of harragas, young North African migrants who try to reach the shores of Europe. Secondly, a study of their families and their environment will attempt to identify the factors leading to these individual journeys, with emphasis on the notions of risk-taking and quest for self.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 699-709.
Beginning with a reflection on contemporary cultural mixing, the author will analyze this issue as it relates to second-generation immigrant children and their parents. Using some clinical examples of children and their parents received in a Pschological Service for immigrants, she reflects upon the trauma of migration and on the non-elaborated secrets which are passed down to the next generation. Also she raises the question of cultural counter-transference, a central factor in preventing fallout within the therapeutic relation, and analyzes the creative potential of second generation adolescents.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 677-697.
Couldn’t adolescence be a metaphor for « migration », with the world of childhood as the native country and adult world the promised land ? Should not the various « passages » then be examined from a topological perspective ?
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 673-676.
This article suggests that the them of migration be considered as a metaphor for an interior psychical operation : the subjectalizing differentiation from the primary objects, which play a decisive role in adolescence. The issue of the subject is treated within a dialogue with sociologists, anthropologists, historians and philosophers, to the point of envisioning a plural subject open to the diversity of libidinal economies – characterized by the omnipresence of psychical bisexuality and infantile sexuality, here related to gender theory.
Migration introduces one to mixing – ethnic, cultural, but also psychical. A clinical example of adolescent psychical disorder generating elaboration and symbolization of interior strangeness illustrates the hypothesis : we are all migrants.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 661-672.
In this article we will attempt to pinpoint some particularities of the psychical movements present in isolated foreign minors, especially the experience of their psychotherapeutic treatment, as well as their educational program. The description of their placement (in this case, in an education-oriented home) will help us investigate several clinical manifestations requiring a reading of the unconscious issues that might be linked to the impact of the trauma of exile. We will see how, in the wake of exile, certain defenses and transference movements are established, implying, among other things, profound reordering of the object relation with parental imagos.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 651-660.
Plans for isolated foreign minors are located at the crossroads where the migratory imagination, the person’s or family’s dreams of the future and the personalized plan constructed with the help of educators come together. Very often, these are opposed to a practice wherein adaptation to reality is supposed to be accomplished by giving up dreams viewed as « utopian ». Using an anthropological study involving twenty young isolated foreign minors (MIE) cared for in Socially Oriented Children’s Centers (MECS) in the Aquitaine region, and D. W. Winnicott’s concept of potential space, this article suggests a different way of thinking about the construction of projects for these youngsters, one which considers their dreams for the future as tools in caring for them.
Adolescence, 2013, T. 31, n°3, pp. 633-649.