Adolescence: growth, development, and crisis

Abstract

Adolescence entails the transformation of one’s identity, sexuality, and sociality. However, it may happen that a change in the body, which occurs during this period of human life, does not correspond to a change in the mind. For instance, it is at this time that the indefinite psychic reality which is made of images, and is peculiar to the pre-verbal stage of the first year of life of each human being, re-emerges. If the child’s relationship with his or her mother or significant adult during the first few months or years of life has been disappointing due to the lack of affections and hollowness, the adolescent may react pathologically to disappointments and difficulties which inevitably stem from a new and deeper way of relating to others and from discovering his or her own sexuality. These pathological reactions may become fertile ground for the development of mental illness.