Some Observations on the Relationship Between Genitality and Structural Development at Adolescence1

In this oversimplified and sketchy presentation of an adolescent boy's history and analysis, I have tried to show how the failure of previous maturational phases so weakened the genital organization at adolescence as to rob the ego of a powerful stimulus toward its own change and growth; and how, as genitality became strengthened, this change and growth did begin to take place. In general, the structural dissolutions which take place during adolescence involve structures which have been built up throughout childhood and have been rather firmly consolidated by the end of the latency period. However, when previous maturational phases, particularly that of the phallic-oedipal, have failed as atypically as they did in this boy, the process of dissolution may be largely limited to pregenital psychic structures and followed more by a deferred structural development than by a structural reorganization. Although this process quite probably would not take place without the aid of analysis, it is greatly facilitated by the maturational forces which work toward a shift in drive organization.

There is a certain amount of disagreement in regard both to the advisability as well as the efficacy of attempting analysis with