Transferences in adolescence are not just regressive and infantile, but also progressive and pubertary. The puberty traumatic economy requires some time to construct an intermediary space out of a shared narrativity that transforms non-figurable pubertary experiences into scenarios that can be shared. The adolescent’s narratives are revisited as creations not to be interpreted as such, at least not at first. The analyst’s constructions upon this intermediary narrative object leave open the possibility of a narrative revisiting, found-created by the adolescent, without having to pronounce on its origin, in a game of active mastery for him. This phase is necessary to assure a subjectivizing narrative identity. The risk of a splitting of narcissistic and objectal transferences, and of an avoidance of « classical » interpretive work, is highlighted. The work of construction implies in the analyst a counter-transference work on the adolescent in the analyst and on his « adolescent sexual theories ».

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°4, pp. 1027-1037