Utilizing the premise that during adolescence there is a recapitulation on a higher level of functioning of the separation-individuation operations of the infant, the authors propose a developmental schema based on Mahler's subphases: 1, stage of sexual awakening (ages thirteen to fifteen); 2, stage of practicing (fourteen to seventeen); 3, stage of acceptance (sixteen to nineteen); and 4, stage of permanent object choice (eighteen to twenty-five). Dating patterns are seen as surface manifestations of the identifying processes that adolescents are engaged in as they repeat the vicissitudes of early object relationship development and as social techniques that enable the adolescent to resolve developmental demands and achieve a permanent object choice.