When an expert on adolescence offers illuminating and convincing insights to demonstrate that the experience is “universal” and another states that it is “vanishing,” one may legitimately infer that there are some wide differences of opinion on the nature of the process as well as on the appropriate adult interventions to help the adolescent during his period of “storm and stress.” Adolescence has been variously described as “a psychosis which we all go through,” “a period of consolidation and maturity,” a “time of transition,” and a “repetition of infancy.” Perhaps the enormity and diversity of opinion on adolescence reflects the instability, inconsistency, and flux of moods and states that the adolescent realistically portrays and experiences.

Anna Freud has lucidly described the adolescent's unstable body image which frequently manifests itself in attitudes of shifting interests,