IT IS THE INTENT OF THIS PAPER TO DELINEATE THE SPECIFIC CONTRIbution of adolescence to the formation of the adult neurosis. Even though only one aspect of this issue will be explored here, its precise conceptualization should sharpen the clinical eye and lead to the investigation of other, related problems, such as, for example, the shift from a particular childhood neurosis to the somewhat different neurosis that might emerge during the postadolescent period. It is not a daring assertion to state that the psychic restructuring that takes place in adolescence exerts, in some fashion, a decisive influence on the adult personality, regardless of whether the outcome of this process is a normal or a pathological one.

My presentation will start by discussing, first, the concept of the