Transferences in adolescence are not just regressive and infantile, but also progressive and pubertary. The puberty traumatic economy requires some time to construct an intermediary space out of a shared narrativity that transforms non-figurable pubertary experiences into scenarios that can be shared. The adolescent’s narratives are revisited as creations not to be interpreted as such, at least not at first. The analyst’s constructions upon this intermediary narrative object leave open the possibility of a narrative revisiting, found-created by the adolescent, without having to pronounce on its origin, in a game of active mastery for him. This phase is necessary to assure a subjectivizing narrative identity. The risk of a splitting of narcissistic and objectal transferences, and of an avoidance of « classical » interpretive work, is highlighted. The work of construction implies in the analyst a counter-transference work on the adolescent in the analyst and on his « adolescent sexual theories ».
In this article, the author understands violence in adolescence as the expression of a malaise specific to this age, wherein the subject finds himself prey to feelings of persecution. Thus he distinguishes between « ordinary adolescent paranoia » – paranoia which marks the « normal » entry into the pubertary Œdipus complex – and paranoïa in the strict sense, a pathology which appears in adulthood. Lastly, he recalls the role of the environment in its capacity to suppose the adolescent’s destructive attacks.
Starting with the postulate that the sexual revolution of the sixties brought about what M. Tort calls « the end of paternal dogma », we suggest that the suburban slums be viewed as enclaves of resistance against the end of an erotic inequality in which the male has the advantage. Beyond the fact that control of femininity is a shared value, virginity continues to considered as sacred, a guarantee of family honor, in the suburban housing projects, while a pervading post-modernity moves towards less difference between the sexes. This clash between two symbolic universes thus increases the conflicts inherent to the delayed action effect of the adolescens process. We will consider that the refusal of the feminine in the adolescent girl and the hatred of the feminine in the adolescent boy result from the same translation of puzzling messages received from the adult other, integrating female sexuality as potentially dishonoring and always dishonorable, and also from a human environment that is « not good enough » to transmit the ways of access to symbolization.
The status of the spoken word, at the onset of adolescence, translates the contradictory identity movement out of which the « I »will be constructed. The identity idem and the identity ipse constitute the two poles from which the certitude of a subjectal definition is pronounced. An «I» that the adolescent questions by upsetting the rules of language, but also by choosing particular procedures to which the new modes of communication will enable him to give form.
Using a series of selections from a treatment, the author covers the conditions of this identity work in adolescence. It is, in essence, a self-construction. Lastly, the author insists on the importance of a psychical « aimless going » for which analytical therapy will appear as the natural matrix.
The language of adolescents is a symptom, necessitating both psychical elaboration and the social and cultural inscription of symbolic practices. Linguistic practices cannot be reduced to the rupture of codes, but rather constitute a language of transit that speaks as much of the urgent need to communicate as of the even more imperious need to not be found, in order to confront the physical, psychical and social upheavals which animate them. Adolescent speech thus becomes a place where the desire of the subject can manage to say itself, outside of the mother tongue, and language may be conceived of as a metonymical representation of the gestating identity.
The authors consider the language as the place where the subjects build their identity. They examine how current post-modernity is changing our ways of speaking. They suppose that a new newspeak is showing up, changing widely the conditions of subjectivation and socialization, especially during adolescence.
Describing the usage, meaning, and users of the French neologism ‘bolos’, this study presents the results of a quantitative investigation carried out on a sample of more than 1200 francophone speakers within the age bracket of 10-30 years of age. The extension of usage of this insult from suburban slang into commonly used youth slang took place between 2006 and 2008 ; we can thus speak about a passage of an identity-marking neologism of a sociological type to a neologism which marks identity with respect to one’s age.
This study examines different representations of adolescents conveyed by adolescent discourse in French and German first language reading books. It is based on a comparison of 12 ninth grade schoolbooks by means of an approach called « comparative discourse linguistics ». The results of the investigation show that whereas French schoolbooks represent the adolescent as a (future) citizen of an intergenerational well-read community, German reading books convey an image of the adolescent trying to construct him/herself, defining him/herself by his/her age group, in conflict with adults.
The auteurs relies on a corpus made up of words singling out and characterizing ‘ youngsters ’, who are the main actors of two recent events (Fall 2005 suburban crisis and Winter 2006 university crisis), to show how naming takes part in representing events.
With the help of two fac-to-face pages from national newspapers, the various « ways for naming » ‘ youngsters ’ is first listed : from collected corpuses naming paradigms are then extrated, which function as many categorizations of young actors implied into both these events.
Processing a third event for chechink purposes leads to wondering about the discurcive representations brought representing events and young actors and matching these events
On the surface this monolog of an adolescent, directed to an adolescent audience, hides in fact a polyphony of diction and reveals, under the appearance of a lexicon often at the margins of normal speech, a mastery of the mechanics of stylistic integration. This, without doubt, explains a reading public beyond that of adolescents.
Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°4, pp. 895-905.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7