Chapter 1. Psychological Problems of Adolescence

The leading theme in adolescence is the conflict between generations. This conflict, posed in terms of a definite age period, did at one time seem to reflect an accurate conception by adolescents of adult identity and maturity. For the contemporary adolescent, however, that concept seems no longer to exist in its strict definition. Quite the contrary: many adolescents are troubled by the fact that the image of the “mature” generation of their parents becomes somewhat obscured for them, once they discover that parents themselves are often still involved in their own, not yet completed adolescence.1 The tolerance of the parents, their gesture of being mature yet understanding, is then seen as only a role, which conceals an actual co-acting at the same level with their children. The parents are apparently not aware that, in giving their children freedom and independence, they are pushing them out at a time when these children are still in need of parental guidance and protection. Experience seems to prove that it is better for growing youth that their attempts to achieve freedom, along with their aggressive protest against authority, should first be begun at home and only later on taken up in the larger field that is now the arena of adolescent