A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Late Adolescence in Men in an Israeli Combat Unit

Adolescence brings about rapid bodily changes followed by psychic reorganization. The environment is used to help in attaching new relational meaning to repressed and revived versions of the self (M. Slavin & Kriegman, 1992). Through this process, adolescents differentiate and redefine themselves and consolidate their identity. In this article I describe and discuss some central experiences of late adolescents who serve as soldiers in Israeli combat units. Military service in a combat unit provides an environment different from those of adolescents in the Western world. Experiences such as the feeling of brotherhood in arms and complete devotion among the soldiers and the idealization by one's family and the larger society may serve as facilitating factors for development. However, constriction of the possibilities for social experimentation, dependency aroused by the totality of the army as an organization, and the lack of direct emotional contact with the other gender contribute to inhibit the developmental process.