ABSTRACT
Adolescents who seek analysis face the difficulties of negotiating adolescent turmoil and the shaking up of the provisional identity of the infantile defences, alongside a sense of openness to new potentials. These potentials are the changes the adolescent has to face, along with establishing self-boundaries and making choices. Adolescence is like a state of illness that is both temporary and normal. In his play Spring Awakening, Frank Wedekind stages the dramatic nature of this period of transition, focusing on the discovery of the body and sexuality, which he sees occurring “the way a frightened owl flies through a burning forest”. Adolescents find themselves in a paradoxical situation. In order to find their bearings in the world, they need to be firmly rooted to their origins; at the same time, however, they need to differentiate themselves from these origins, and be free to distance themselves from them.
