Reflections on the Setting in the Treatment of Adolescents1

The author focuses on the significance of the setting for the development of the psychoanalytic process, especially in the case of adolescents who request analytic treatment. Her main goals are to specify: a) how the setting is configured with this type of patients; and b) to what extent it contributes to the creation of an inner space that may internalize a figure with reverie—a good object that will metabolize the bad and thus enable identification. The setting, which is considered the necessary context for analytic work, is defined as bearing two facets: that of the analyst, which must be constant and stable, and that of the adolescent, which will progressively change provided that the analyst maintains a firm context that contributes to make the adolescent feel contained and accepted. It is such a feeling that will enable the unfolding of the analytic process. The author emphasizes the importance of the presence of the analyst (his or her voice, the manner of his or her speech, and so on), and the need for the analyst to comply with the rules he or she has established together with the patient. She presents a clinical case to illustrate this conceptualization.