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This paper has two goals: first, to review the psychoanalytic theories of delinquency up till the present time, and, second, to discuss recent observations on borderline adolescent delinquents which focus attention on the boundary between intrapsychic and interactional processes specifically in the family containing a delinquent offspring.
The data was collected from an ongoing research project on adolescents and their families conducted at the Adolescent Treatment Center of the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital. A previous publication (Singer, 1974) presented in detail the theoretical basis, methodology and overall preliminary findings of this study so that for our present purposes only the specific data on delinquency will be provided. This project, as well as the survey of the literature, limits itself to middle-class delinquency. The middle-class delinquents seen were not those with extensive sociopathy, but rather with circumscribed antisocial behavioural trends within a context of rather typical values, attitudes, and standards of their sociocultural group.
This review section is broadly evolutionary and has been subdivided into core areas of theoretical interest reflective of the major thrusts at different times and of different authors. These are: (1) drive disturbances and fantasy formation, (2) ego and characterologic disturbances and (3) superego defects. But before focusing on these specific areas of theory, some general observations should be mentioned, which were made early and have survived the test of time. For example, Healy (1915) as well as Aichhorn (1935) described a number of sociopathic children who had identified with the gross ethical and moral distortions of their parents, but were not necessarily in intrapsychic conflict. Likewise, Freud (1916) and later Eissler (1949a) remarked on the surprising frequency in which a real injustice was inflicted on the delinquent during his latency period, marring his future development. This i