Meeting of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

October 31, 1978. MODIFICATIONS IN THE CLASSICAL PSYCHOANALYTIC MODEL OF ADOLESCENCE. Peter Blos, Ph.D.

Recapitulation of earlier conflicts in adolescence is more than a revival of phallic conflicts, according to Dr. Blos. The positive oedipal conflict undergoes a resolution before the latency period sets in, but the negative component reaches a conflictual crisis during adolescence. Thus the specific task of this period is to complete—not just repeat—the resolution of the oedipus complex. Adolescents can best utilize this second chance if they have acquired the appropriate ego differentiation during latency and avoided a fixation at the level of infantile narcissism. They are then able to test reality more critically, particularly in the world of object relations, and employ the social surroundings for sublimations and identifications.

Although bisexuality is relatively well tolerated in prelatency, at puberty it leads to problems of homosexuality and sexual identity and is therefore stubbornly repressed and denied. This is often accomplished by pushing heterosexual behavior and fantasies into the center of therapy and life. In resolving the negative oedipus complex, neutralization of drive components through emotional attitudes, character traits, and sublimatory endeavors is important. However, Dr. Blos also stressed a critical intermediate step, whereby the libido invested in the narcissistic object of the negative oedipal attachment becomes desexualized and initiates the structure of the adult ego ideal. The infantile belief in the magical realization of perfection is replaced by the drive toward its approximation. Thus the adult ego ideal is the heir to the negative oedipus complex.

Development during adolescence also necessitates the recapitulation and divestiture of infantile dependencies by means of a delimited, nondefensive regression. Preoedipal conflicts are usually suggested when the adolescent manifests such symptoms as dysphoric moods, overeat