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This book is a collection of papers on adolescence written by senior psychoanalytic psychotherapists from various European countries. The varied contributions are held together powerfully by a common thread: adolescence is a unique developmental stage in which it is still possible to re-elaborate deep conflicts experienced in childhood. Coming from different theoretical backgrounds and from different clinical practices the authors share the belief that, as well as being a period of great vulnerability, adolescence also possesses great resources in the ability to reconstruct and compensate. As Anastasopoulos says in his foreword, ‘adolescence contains components that are capable of leading either to the restoration of the fragmented personality or to a hell in which chaotic disturbance can be permanent’.
For the therapist, the possibility of a second chance, of modifying the adolescent's internal world and consequently their future, can be both exciting and overwhelming. There is a potential for therapists to experience at once omnipotent and completely hopeless feelings which belong in large measure to the adolescent's extreme and confused state of mind.
A recurrent theme throughout is the quality of continuous thought needed to help those adolescents whose essential mental equipment is faulty to face the challenge of growing up. The struggle to reach the adolescent patient in order to avoid the ever-present possibility of psychic breakdown or of dangerous acting out, and the need to maintain a balanced closeness/distance in the therapeutic relationship, are underlined by all the authors. The continuous search for ‘the right technique’ demonstrates both the uncertainties and worries as well as the dedication and the challenges faced by therapists. Great importance is given to both the function and the use of interpretation, with some authors stressing that the therapist's first aim is to stand in as a supplementary ego, particularly in those cases where the adolescent