This article deals with the vicissitudes of the integration of the feminine in delinquent adolescent girls, especially those who are sexually delinquent, who overinvest apparently masculine aspects, such as narcissistic phallic features. As a result of early narcissistic trauma, these subjects struggle defensively against the integration of passive positions associated with harmful passivation and feminization.
Adolescence, 2018, 36, 1, 69-83.
Cet article traite des vicissitudes de l’intégration du féminin chez des adolescents délinquants, plus particulièrement sexuels, qui surinvestissent certains aspects apparents de la masculinité, comme les traits de caractère narcissique-phallique. Du fait de traumatismes narcissiques précoces, ces sujets luttent défensivement contre l’intégration des positions passives assimilées à une passivation et une féminisation mortifères.
Adolescence, 2018, 36, 1, 69-83.
Far more than any other period of life, adolescence is the container of a whole series of processes already inscribed within the child at birth. It is according to an adequate answer from the objects that these processes will reach full development. Violence to be will then take the shape of a life project, i.e. the expression of the superego signing the completion of adolescence. Such is not the fate of sexual aggressors. Non integrated violence leads them to let their ego being dissolved in the interplay of several processes. The aggression of the other person thus becomes a defence against an hallucinatory intrusion.
Far more than any other period of life, adolescence is the container of a whole series of processes already inscribed within the child at birth. It is according to an adequate answer from the objects that these processes will reach full development. Violence to be will then take the shape of a life project, i.e. the expression of the superego signing the completion of adolescence. Such is not the fate of sexual aggressors. Non integrated violence leads them to let their ego being dissolved in the interplay of several processes. The aggression of the other person thus becomes a defence against an hallucinatory intrusion.
The reversal into the opposite and the turning round upon oneself are the basic archaic mechanisms of subjectivation, particularly of the pubertaire. It works with material that Green has summed up under the name “ passivation ”. A human third party is required for this. Clinical treatment of the “ adolescent-soldier ” provides a paradigm for the organization in which, in the absence of the third party, the traumatic bi-polarity (victim-tormentor, abused, abuser) repeats itself unchanged.
With reference to fundamental aspects of the adolescent process, the author explores the issue of the transformation of experiences of shame at this age, their disorganization and reorganization. She emphasizes the things that contribute to the often traumatic character of shame and its impact on the subject’s narcissism, especially passivation in the face of the genital and pre-genital drive emergences of puberty, and the modifying of identifications.
Psychoanalytical teamwork is recommended in the treatment of the particular form of transference that routinely occurs in the institutional treatment of young patients suffering from psychotic disorders or from behavioral pathology (borderline cases). The degree of alienation is such that repetition will tend to be induced in the other – the therapist, in this case – due to the absence of constituted fantasy in certain sectors of the patient’s psyche. It is as if the restitution (Freud, 1937) and subjective appropriation of these elements by the patient necessitated a detour through the psychical space of the caregivers (which is very trying for them), obliging them first of all to elaborate these subjective elements among themselves.
Un travail psychanalytique à plusieurs est indiqué pour traiter cette forme particulière de transfert qui survient régulièrement dans le traitement institutionnel de jeunes patients souffrant de troubles psychotiques ou d’une pathologie de comportement (cas limites). Le degré d’aliénation est alors tel en effet que la répétition va tendre à être induite dans l’autre – le thérapeute en l’occurrence – en l’absence d’un fantasme constitué dans certains secteurs du psychisme du patient. Tout se passe comme si la restitution (Freud, 1937) et l’appropriation subjective de ces éléments par le patient nécessitaient un détour dans l’espace psychique des soignants (de façon souvent éprouvante pour ceux-ci), les obligeant dès lors à élaborer avant tout ces données subjectives entre eux.
Le renversement en son contraire et le retournement sur la personne propre sont les mécanismes archaïques de base de la subjectivation en particulier pubertaire, travaillant sur un matériau que Green résume sous le nom de “ passivation ”. Pour ce faire, une tiercéité humaine spécifique est requise. La clinique de “ l’adolescent-soldat ” est paradigmatique de l’organisation dans laquelle, en l’absence de cette tiercité, la bipolarité traumatique, (victime-bourreau, abusé-abuseur) se répète à l’identique.
S’appuyant sur des aspects fondamentaux du processus d’adolescence, l’auteur creuse la question de la transformation des éprouvés de honte à cet âge de la vie, leur désorganisation et leur réorganisation. L’accent est mis sur ce qui contribue au caractère souvent traumatique de la honte et son impact sur le narcissisme du sujet, notamment la passivation face à l’émergence pulsionnelle pubertaire, génitale et prégénitale, ainsi que le remaniement des identifications.