The theme of cannibalism emerged in an unusual way in an adolescent therapy group and was a recurring theme throughout its history. This article will study the polysemia of cannibalistic fantasies as the group process evolves. According to our hypothesis, the role of group illusion enabled a passage from a melancholy form of cannibalism to an incestuous one, and afterwards to cannibalism that was a defense against genital sexuality.
Adolescence, 2016, 34, 1, 17-26.
The party condenses two contradictory expectations : one individual, that is, knowing how to find the ideal in a love and/or sexual partner ; the other, to recover the narcissistic security within the group that promises some incomparable pleasures. The choice is especially difficult because the two solutions have the same consequence: the happiness of « oceanic feeling ». Caught between fidelity to the group and the hope of falling in love, the teenager often opts for a third way, that of the quick search for a trance-like state brought about by the consumption of alcohol or narcotics.