ABSTRACT
Of the various attitudes which the ego may adopt toward the instinctual life, there are two in particular which, when thus accentuated at puberty, strike the observer with fresh force and explain some of the peculiarities typical of this period. They are the asceticism and the intellectuality of adolescence. Probably the increase in the quantity of instinct at puberty and other periods in life when there is a sudden accession of instinctual energy accentuates this primary antagonism to such a degree that it becomes a specific and active defense mechanism. Infancy and puberty are periods of instinctual danger and the “intelligence” which characterizes them serves at least in part to assist the subject to surmount that danger. In latency and adult life, on the other hand, the ego is relatively strong and can without detriment to the individual relax its efforts to intellectualize the instinctual processes.
