The notion of violence in psychopathology has mainly to do with the amount of excitation that is unleashed. When thinking about violence in adolescence we must consider what has upset the adolescent’s economy to the point of overwhelming psychical resources. At this time of life, there is a conjunction between the sources of internal excitations and of excessive external stimulation, while investments of relations with the parents no longer have the same role in the psychical economy, hence the “trauma of adolescence”.

Adolescence, 2019, 37, 2, 225-232.