The author proposes to decline the word “cloistered” in the masculine, using the treatment of males who withdraw socially in adolescence. To do this, she will explore what is specific to the construction of narcissism, boundaries, and the processing of loss in boys. She will then show how these components take part in the boy’s journey through adolescence. Lastly, she will illustrate her arguments with a clinical account, which leads to the issue of the mirror function.
The biblical text of the “ Prodigal Son ”, dealing with the father-son relation, allows us to situate this relation within several different mythical fields, among them the field of psychoanalysis. Like Christianity and Indo-European culture, the theme of Don Juan in the XVIIth century will produce a rupture and introduce something new into the order of transmission. The “ nuptial home ” emerges with the return of the feminine, in the figure of Abraham, who is both masculine and feminine.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7