ABSTRACT
The maturing process under way during adolescence— uncertainties, reworking of one’s identity, bodily changes, search for one’s femininity—risk becoming frozen. Adolescence would be a sort of waiting stage, of cultural origin, during which the subject concerned occupies an intermediate status. “Adolescence, a modern phenomenon, is the result of being ejected from society, the effect of exclusion from the city”. Parental and social attitudes have changed towards adolescents with cognitive disabilities, who are in greater contact with other young people of their age, especially through integration at school or activities of all types. The chapter identifies an ever more frequent and clear identity-orientated dynamic in adolescents with an intellectual disability, suggesting a real process of subjectivation sustained by psychic work whose progress is readily observable. However, during adolescence and young adulthood, a hygienist practice is recommended, or even fostered within the well-meaning proximity of the surrounding adults, in what increasingly appears to be a form of behavioural management.
