I would like to explore further, using material from a particular adolescent girl, some of the problems of adolescents in general as introduced by my husband yesterday. It may be worthwhile first of all to rehearse briefly some of the general points that he made, and which she seems to illustrate.

First of all there is the adolescent's disappointment about the latency child's fantasy of knowledge as something concrete which he would be able to achieve, to have when he is grown up.

Then there is the fading, in adolescence, of the young person's belief in omniscience and omnipotence, as attributed to his parents and to grown-ups in general; and in particular the omniscience and omnipotence that is attributed to sexual relationships—which almost always contain elements of disappointment for the adolescent when he first embarks on one.

Then there is the task which the adolescent has of getting in touch with the experiences that he has internalized from the past: