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In the range of clinical research and theoretical examination of the theme of adolescence, this volume, edited by Luisa Carbone Tirelli, is significant for
various reasons. In the first place, in restricting itself to the exploration of a particular phase of adolescence, the book responds well to the need to refine our psychoanalytic, diagnostic and therapeutic approach to this delicate age-group. Secondly, the book records some research which took place over a number of years at the headquarters of the Italian Association of Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (AIPPI — Associazione Italiana di Psicoterapia Psicoanalitica Infantile) in Rome, which culminated in a conference in Rome in 2001 entitled ‘The Period of Change: Signs of Difficulty Associated with Growing Up in 11-14 Year-olds’. Thirdly, the book provides insight into a method where rigorous application of psychoanalytic technique is combined with the vitally important consideration of the needs of all who are involved. Thus emphasis is placed on the treatment of the children in difficulty but we are also continually reminded of the need to provide ‘psychic spaces’ where parents, the school or others involved with the individual can think about him/her. At the end, the book invites us to reflect on an important issue for psychoanalysts who work with young people, that is, the connection of certain adolescent phenomena with the influence of culture and surroundings. As the editor notes, in fact, in recent years, there has been evidence that puberty is starting earlier and earlier, so that “years which were once considered to be very firmly situated within childhood now mark the start of adolescence, resulting in greater problems arising from the negotiations between the changes taking place in the body and the necessary psychic and cognitive adjustments of growing up” (p. 9).
Returning to the first point, we must remember that, these days, far from being the