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The psychiatrist-author takes strong exception to the analytic view of normal adolescence as a time of turmoil. Conclusions about the
stressful nature of normal adolescence constitute an unwarranted generalization on the part of clinicians whose knowledge is gained primarily from contact with disturbed young people, Dr. Offer claims. He points to the absence of studies of normal adolescence, a lack his book attempts to remedy.
Defining adolescent turmoil as 'a significant disruption in the psychic organization of the adolescent that leads to psychological disequilibrium and tumult, resulting in fluctuant and unpredictable behavior', the author apparently assumes that analysts believe normal adolescents are in a continuously chaotic state, despite analytic recognition of the adolescent's constructive and adaptive ego mechanisms.
The seventy-three subjects for this study were selected from the freshman classes of two suburban Chicago schools. These fourteen-year-old boys were selected for their normalcy chiefly on the basis of a self-administered 'Self-Image Questionnaire' constructed by the author who considers it a valid tool because 'adolescents are in touch with their own feelings'. It is Dr. Offer's contention that these boys were 'highly accurate in their capacity to evaluate themselves and to report these self-evaluations', yet he reports negative correlations between these evaluations and teacher ratings in quite a few items.
Each boy was seen on an average of three times a year for the following three years in a 'semi-structured' interview in which a series of questions was asked about thoughts, feelings, fantasies, anxieties, etc. The one interview with parents was similarly structured. Projective tests and teacher ratings provided additional data.
The author appears to believe that a high degree of motivation, resulting from engaging the young boys in a 'research alliance', can cause unconscious defenses and repressions to melt away. He accepts at face