The experience of puberty*

Introduction

The specific feature which differentiates the adolescent from people of other ages is the experience of puberty, and much of the adolescent’s behaviour in the community may be seen as an external expression of the unconscious anxieties and conflicts aroused by pubertal sexual development. It also appears that some of the community’s reactions to adolescents express the anxiety of the adult when faced with the fact that a new generation is attaining sexual maturity. An adolescent girl reflected a wide-spread attitude when saying “I know what juvenile delinquency means, but I am not sure which word means ‘young person’ and which word means ‘criminal’”. The constant stories of teenage violence and teenage sexuality and the reactions of outraged protest, force upon one the realisation that prominent sections of the adolescent population and of the adult population alike are engaged in the warlike activity of acting out their oedipal rivalry.

This is often conducted in conformity to stereotyped patterns of conflict which enable both parties to avoid experiencing guilt and personal responsibility for the intense feelings of hostility and envy arising from their mutual sexual rivalry. Sometimes the conflict occurs on a vast scale and most of the population is drawn into participating in the melodrama at least vicariously. Or it may initially be conducted as a one-man war. A boy telephoned me late one might saying “I have urgent news to tell you. I am at war with the L.C.C.” This was followed by tenacious and partially successful efforts to get myself and other members of the Clinic staff to act in conjunction with him and to become involved in conflict with many County Council officials. It was only just possible to prevent him from extending his war to the police and to Interpol.

The physical maturation of the adolescent, with its greatly increased sexual drives, is simultaneously accompanied by a resurgence of the imperious feelings and phantasies which previou