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.
The authors address the issue of the attempted suicide of a teenager in connection with « mother » failing in its capacity as investment, resulting in the formation of a hole in the object relation. The tension of conflict between attraction and object-preserving narcissistic found to be expressed through the body and act at such great suffering in adolescent identity. In an attempt to plug the gaps caused by narcissistic failures of the early object, use an object of addiction (violin) – from tuning and hooking – has allowed this teenager to avoid confront loss, emptiness itself, and to distance any investment that could be threatening to her psychic integrity. The authors show how psychotherapy mediation will promote the involvement of this adolescent work in barter and mourning in support of sublimation.