ABSTRACT
Contrary to what is generally accepted, work is not simply a backdrop against which the plot and intrigue of psycho-neurosis is played out. At least this is the point of view we shall seek to argue by focusing on the psychodynamics of work. The clinical data amassed by this discipline since the post-war period indeed suggests that work occupies a central role in character development, from early childhood to maturity. We will not consider here the impact of work on psychic development before adolescence. Instead we shall confine ourselves to discussing the role occupied by social relations of work in the construction of sexual identity, and to analysing the difficulties these give rise to, up to and including in the erotic economy itself, during adolescence. While the aim of this chapter is conceptual, it is beyond the present scope to enter into a full discussion of the theoretical dimension. Indeed, our primary aim is to gather together the clinical elements required by us to address the question of the analytic listening to, and the interpretation of, the dimension of work in psychic functioning. As such we shall draw on the psychotherapeutic work that took place with a young woman in her late adolescence.
