ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the functioning of the adolescent mind is discussed. Adolescence is an enzyme that permeates the mind and forces to confront with the life cycle. The chapter emphasises that adult psychopathology is not the direct consequence of the re-emergence of childhood neurosis, as held by classical psychoanalysis. Phase-specific characteristics of adolescence are discussed, such as the emergence of sexualisation of the body and new sensoriality, experiences that are to be integrated with the more archaic sensations that the child carries with him or her from the first mirroring relationship with the mother.
