The Problem of the Acute Identity Crisis in Adolescence

The Notion of the “adolescent crisis” has been entering into our psychiatric and psychoanalytic usage more and more frequently since it was popularized by Erikson. Yet many analysts are still unclear about what it refers to, and even more uncertain about its clinical aspects and treatment.

This uncertainty may stem from several sources: a lack of familiarity with the elements involved in “identity” as these undergo modification during late adolescence; and an inherent difficulty in confronting the characteristic adolescent syndromes. This difficulty, a problem recently stressed by A. Symonds,¹ may even deter some analysts from working with such young patients.

Many youngsters may show much turbulence and turmoil during the years from about sixteen through the early twenties. Some, however, may make a fairly orderly transition into adulthood. Yet it is a telling comment on our culture that these latter youths who “fit in” without noticeable over-reactions are often considered abnormal by their peers, and are called conformists or “squares.” Even some analysts hold this position. Anna Freud states that “the maintenance of a steady equilibrium during adolescence is abnormal in itself.”² On the other hand, some analysts feel that the absence of such turmoil or symptomatic reactions is, by itself, indicative of “normal” adolescent passage.³ I feel that neither of these views is valid: that the absence or presence of symptomatic reactions may be either healthy or pathologic, and can only be evaluated in the context of the adolescent's total personality. Conformity and tranquillity can be compulsive, and turmoil can be constructive; an apparently smooth façade may cover severe underlying conflicts.

The analyst is often called upon to evaluate the degree of pathology. Such patients may present themselves with many and varied clinical syndromes. They may show neurotic reactions or anxiety states of any intensity; confusional states with depersonalization syndromes; intense affe