ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the physiological facts of puberty and on the emotional responses to it. Adolescence encompasses a particular mental and emotional orientation to life, one that is usually epitomized by the teenage years but is by no means limited to them. In early adolescence, sexual anxiety naturally propels the young person into a preference for friends of the same sex, but the tendency may be strongly reinforced by the underlying Oedipal fears and dangerous possibilities. Characteristically, the adolescent draws on projective mechanisms in his desire to get rid of uncomfortable feelings. In some respects, during adolescence projective tendencies, if moderate, can in a more positive way ease the conflicts. When feelings are particularly intense, adolescent groups take on an almost tribal significance of passion and attachment towards each other and hostility or indifference towards adults, or towards other groups.
