ABSTRACT
In this chapter A. Ornstein compares the early adolescence of Vivienne Loomis (who committed suicide) and Anne Frank (who was killed by Nazis) because the comparison illuminates various issues that have to be taken into considerations when assessing the psychological state of an early adolescent: what was the psychobiological state prior, is the child’s emotional environment responsive to the expectable internal struggles and does the child have an opportunity to become part of idealized others that could potentially compensate for structured deficits related to earlier developmental difficulties. In Anne’s case the comparison between these teenagers illustrates that external, potentially traumatic events such as war and social upheavals do not have a direct psychological impact on the child’s development when the family may function as a bulwark that protects the child from the impact of external events. Vivienne instead was an emotionally traumatized “parenting child” whose emotional needs were unresponded from early years on, so that her self remained fable- and fragmentation-prone.
