This article aims to articulate two theoretical and complementary approaches to adolescence: fantasy and its recasting on the one hand, and the adolescent “ sinthome ” on the other hand. We’ll start off with the concept of the “ sinthome ” in J. Lacan’s theory and its specific use in the logical moment of adolescence. Then we’ll consider what we have named “ the recasting of adolescence ”. It is indeed a conception of adolescence fantasy (the specificity of the rhomboid – which Lacan calls the “ awl ” – in the matheme) which will enable us to find the primary foundations of the construction of the “ sinthome ”. By showing how close the function of the “ sinthome ” is to that of fantasy, this theory leads into new avenues regarding the psychopathology of the adolescent and, moreover, into the direction his treatment should take.

Adolescence, 2008, T. 26, n°1, pp. 237-247.