ABSTRACT
Cohen and Balikov, in a fine article on the impact of adolescence on parents, write that adolescents rebel to “Achieve a new concept of the self which fits and is more in keeping with their contemporary life situation”. They say parents must continue protective parenting and maintain cohesion of the family group. Hostility disrupts empathy, yet parents must remain empathic to the hostile child. Renegotiation of the relationship between parents and the more equal child must occur. Parental narcissism experiences the assault, especially on the omnipotent need to be an ideal parent. One must reflect on reactions to the adolescent in order to enlarge empathy. This requires separation from the parents’ own archaic objects. Additionally, the adolescent undergoes heightened narcissism while the parent undergoes self-evaluation, which can be an assault on parental self-esteem due to actual humiliation, confidence loss, and feelings of helplessness.
