Early Adolescence and its Consequences

On a recent radio talk show the focus of discussion was on efforts being made by a local school board to revise and revamp education at the junior high school level.

“Anything they can do for those kids would be a bonanza,” the host remarked. “Everyone knows that junior high school is the worst time of one's life.”

Perhaps because for many individuals it is, if not the worst time of their lives, surely a close runner-up, early adolescence is arguably the period in development that is most neglected in clinical work. It is often said (Blos 1962) that all of adolescence claims that distinction. While it is undoubtedly true that when the adolescent period has been an emotionally disruptive and painful one memories of those years may be kept under strong repression and may not be readily accessible in treatment, in not a few cases they surface spontaneously and quite readily in the patient's associations. For many individuals, in fact, middle and late adolescence are times that are quite accessible to memory and, not infrequently, they become the focus of much useful work in analysis. These years are among the most intensely experienced and well-remembered times of life (Spiegle 1958). It is to them that first loves and other great sorrows belong. These are the years of great feats of athletic and intellectual prowess, of initial and highly charged sexual experiences, and of profound friendships. These are primarily the high school years that, one way or another, leave their mark on the personality and are emblazoned in memory. Not a few individuals have difficulty moving beyond those years; their personalities retain many of the features of adolescence. Citing the may films, novels, and plays that turn with nostalgia or bittersweet memories to this period, one pundit asked if there really is any life beyond high school.

In a short story entitled “The Eighty Yard Run,” the author, Irwin Shaw, captures the remarkable hold that memories of late adolescence have on some indiv