The authors see the activism of some adolescents in the fight against ecosystem mutations and the necessity of their being acknowledged by adults as the expression of a psychical work of democratization. The case of Jonathan, a tormented adolescent who raises ants, illustrates a possible way of encountering the non-human environment, one which is gratifying both for narcissism and for ideals, but which reveals considerable extinction anxiety.

Adolescence, 2021, 39, 1, 125-138.