This article presents a brief clinical vignette with a young murderer, who had presented behavioral disorders in adolescence and was refused treatment on the grounds that no demand had been made, to discuss and critique the concept of « demand ». The authors give several reasons why it is impossible for these adolescents to verbalize a demand for treatment, while their behavior is in itself equivalent to a demand unconsciously addressed to the other. Theories which hypothesize the specific nature of the language of the act in adolescence are recalled: these allow us to think about the therapeutic settings and arrangements that would be necessary to care for the psychical suffering of these subjects.
Adolescence, 2013, 30, 4, 919-933.