In his work on the question of the violence of adolescence, François Marty has helped to define the specificity of adolescence in relation to childhood.
Joined to the very process of adolescence, the “ illegitimate violence ” of adolescence has first of all been defined as the fruit of incestuous and parricidal motivations that have been insufficiently elaborated by the adolescens… Understood afterwards as the inauguration of a “ pubertaire trauma ” constituting the second phase of a “ generalized trauma ” inherent to human development, the specific stages of its elaboration have been detected. The quality of the narcissistic foundations emerged as determinant in the fulfillment of the “ narcissistic transactions ” of the pubertaire trauma.
Since the process of adolescence is specific, the therapeutic work is : for Marty, the therapist had better assume the role of “ ferryman ”, and establish, whenever possible and desirable, an “ enlarged” and “ flexible ” setting which allows for the inclusion of the family dimension in the work with adolescents.