Using a clinical situation encountered in a psychiatric service for adolescents, we will develop what we call a “borderline clinic” of adolescence, showing how this clinical work can put the institution to the test. We will attempt to show how the institution can develop its symbolic potential in order to humanize violence, by developing its capacities for listening and verbal exchange and by “hystericizing” the melancholic movements at work in this clinical field.

Adolescence, 2019, 37, 2, 385-401.