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The thesis of this book challenges the traditional concept of adolescence as a period of expectedly severe turmoil, which young people will outgrow in the course of time. Contrary to the traditional concept, the contributors, all affiliated with the Brent Center for Adolescents, give one clinical example after another of young people with serious difficulties that worsened without help or whose problems were modified favorably with intervention. They also give examples of older patients in their 30s whose pathologic personality make up was consolidated and became rigid after adolescence, in the absence of timely intervention. In one of the cases described, the problems were not detected during the patient's teens, even though she was quite symptomatic at the time. By the time she received treatment, her difficulties were much harder to correct. Therefore, the contributors are deeply convinced of the utility of making intervention accessible for troubled adolescents to avert or minimize unfavorable outcomes.
The contributors define adolescent breakdown as a disruption in the normal developmental process that has not yet become consolidated as a severely entrenched mental illness. They make the important observation that the distress of the youngsters has specific meaning, that is, specific content of the conflict that can be understood, even if this may be unconscious and thus not readily accessible. They emphasize the importance of the adolescent's fantasies and inner life.
Laufer describes the salient features of normal adolescent development, including the ability to maintain self-regard as one becomes less dependent on parental approval. He also discusses adolescents' ability to accept newly awakened sexual feelings without undue shame or guilt, and their need to have faith that their staying confined to fantasizing will evolve in the course of time to mature sexual outlets. This self-acceptance would allow adolescents to