The image of a chain of paper dolls comes to mind to help the clinical psychologist working in a juvenile detention center to envision adolescents caught in a chain marked by the fraternal, the horizontal, and the norm. The author presents his practice in the prison itself: the displacement of the psychologist towards the adolescent in his incarcerated condition, with the interposition of a clinical setting. This can open the way for the adolescent towards a work of psychical differentiation and subjectivation. A clinical illustration bears witness to an adolescent’s journey in the encounter with the psychologist, from the « we » to the « I », with a chessboard turning out to be an important object in this case.

Adolescence, 2014, 32, 1, 127-138.