The author proposes that the term “ pre-puberty ” be replaced by that of “ Almost-pubertaire ”, referring to the work of both Gutton and Jankélévitch. Indeed this formulation seems more appropriate to bearing witness to the particular dynamic that is in play during this time of life. No longer really a child, not yet adolescent, the subject of this in-between is more than ever confronted with the question of being, whose fundamental expression remains the inability to know what is to come.

Adolescence, septembre 2002, 20, 3, 655-664