Developmental Breakdown in Young Adulthood: Some Manifestations and Precipitants

My first task in this paper is to try and give an overview of the patient group and also to discuss briefly some of the possible reasons for the fact that they sought help when they did. Secondly, I have looked in slightly more detail at one of the central difficulties of a number of these patients: the continuing attachment to the preoedipal mother and the possible connection between this and their problem in forming a sexual relationship. For this task, I have used the Provisional Diagnostic Profiles written by each analyst on his patient at the outset of treatment (within the first few weeks). Inevitably, at this early stage my statements are mainly descriptive, although possibly some explanatory formulations can be offered.

In assessing this group of patients one needs to ask what tasks they should have achieved or should be on their way to achieving. There are, of course, no generally agreed criteria for what constitutes healthy development in adulthood. However, perhaps as a starting point for young adulthood - the time of life when relationships are formed and careers started - one could take Freud's criteria for mental health: to be able to love and to work. Erikson (1950) describes the central conflict of young adulthood as ‘intimacy versus isolation’. In this stage of life, Erikson says, the avoidance of experiences of intimacy and self-abandon, because of a fear of ego-loss, may lead to a deep sense of isolation. Erikson includes in such experiences, not only sexual union, but also ‘close friendship, physical combat, experiences of inspiration by teachers and experiences of intuition from the recesses of the self. He also says that