According to the ideas of Piera Aulagnier, we find at the heart of adolescence a fundamental phenomenon of auto-alteration. Indeed, the prerequisite for any adolescent process is to have a certain number of steady anchors which can ensure the permanence and reliability of identifications. Only the assurance of persistence will open up the gamut of identifying positions, while fostering the subject’s tolerance of “auto-modifications of oneself”.

Adolescence, 2015, 33, 4, 741-770.