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Puberty brings strain and stress to the inner world of the child. While earlier in development certain issues and conflicts could remain unresolved and simply be put aside, these must now be tackled. Indeed, certain tasks related to psychic restructuring must be completed for the adolescent to continue the developmental process. Among these tasks, I will concentrate on three: (1) the problems of coping with a sexually mature body and adult sexuality; (2) detaching from the parents as love objects; and (3) relinquishing the parents as authority figures.
Puberty brings sexual pressures of a sort and degree not encountered earlier in life. Therefore, one of the first tasks for early adolescents is coping with instinctual pressure, readjusting to body image, and readjusting a sense of masculinity or femininity. For the adolescent to ultimately make a mature genital sexual adaptation he or she must repress oedipal incestuous wishes and, at the same time, make new identifications with sexually active parents. While masturbation may be a way in which the adolescent can take possession of a newly matured sexual body (Laufer and Laufer, 1984), and integrate sexuality