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Campanile addresses an issue that is abidingly mysterious, nearly a hundred and twenty years into the progression of psychoanalytic theory: how exactly do we integrate our bodies into our mentalized structures? And how does this happen over the course of a lifetime?
Preadolesence and early adolescence are chosen here as a critical crossroad for these developmental paths, often at odds directionally, often doubling back to where they came from, yet pressing forward bumpily or smoothly, willy-nilly. As Campanile says here, “the extraordinary investment of the bodily ego that takes place in this developmental phase makes the body … a privileged place for the expression of conflict” (p. 413). With his fresh vision and arresting use of language, he has a special talent for thinking about the role of the body.
The material itself is familiar. Campanile, like many others—e.g., Erikson (1968), Bios (1979), and Fonagy et al. (2002)—points to
… the [adolescent] task of redefining and creating new self-representations … as well as the integration of new possibilities for realizing sexual desires and aggressive ones, made possible by growing up. It requires … finding a new balance between narcissistic investments and object ones … and thus in object relations, particularly those with the parents. [Campanile 2012, p. 403]