This article tells of the psychotherapeutic treatment of an adolescent who was abandoned, adopted and placed in an educational institution. It deals with the impact in adolescence of earlier experiences of abandonment and the later ability of adoptive parents and institutions to cope with these. The steps of the therapeutic process and the troubles presented by the young boy are described through transferential exchanges and adjustments which give meaning to the treatment and its evolution.

Adolescence, 2016, 34, 4, 753-761.