The author illustrates how parental resistances can lay the groundwork for the adolescent’s psychopathology. The presentation of a problematic therapeutic situation helps remind us of several principles about the treatment of families. We would suggest that school phobia be considered as post-traumatic syndrome rather than a neurotic problem, while emphasizing the burden of the parents’non-introjected infantile ideals on the development of the adolescent.

Adolescence, 2014, 32, 3, 464-479.