ABSTRACT
It seems to me that papers about adolescence or adolescent psychotherapy frequently begin with a mantra and follow up shortly with a lament. The mantra usually includes the invocation of adolescence as a developmental phase that reflects the confluence of physical and cognitive maturation, as well as the expectations of adolescents, families, and society within a historical context. We note its subdivisions into early, middle, and late manifestations that mark the progression of meeting the tasks of social, sexual, educational, and vocational functioning, manifested in increasingly self-sufficient functioning. From an intrapsychic point of view, we note that the adolescent passage is centrally defined by a transformation of psychic structure, which we label identity or character consolidation. The concomitant subjective shift includes a realistic experience of oneself as unique yet part of a context, with self-esteem resilient over a variety of circumstances. From the vantage point of therapists, we note our accustomed position of thinking about adolescent psychotherapy as removing obstacles that interfere with the unfolding of this developmental transformation—and even of our being a part of it through the adolescent’s re-solving childhood dilemmas or having new experiences of relationship.
