Adolescence and Breakdown PDF
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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: ADOLESCENCE Volume 6 ADOLESCENCE AND BREAKDOWN This page intentionally left blank ADOLESCENCE AND BREAKDOWN Edited by SIMON MEYERSON Firstpublishedin1975byGeorgeAllen&Unwin(Publishers)Ltd Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2016 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©1975GeorgeAllen&Unwin(Publishers)Ltd Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilised inanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownor hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformation storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN:978-1-138-94766-5(Set) ISBN:978-1-315-64149-2(Set)(ebk) ISBN:978-1-138-95762-6(Volume6)(hbk) ISBN:978-1-138-95802-9(Volume6)(pbk) ISBN:978-1-315-66161-2(Volume6)(ebk) Publisher’sNote Thepublisherhasgonetogreatlengthstoensurethequalityofthisreprintbut pointsoutthatsomeimperfectionsintheoriginalcopiesmaybeapparent. Disclaimer Thepublisherhasmadeeveryefforttotracecopyrightholdersandwouldwelcome correspondencefromthosetheyhavebeenunabletotrace. ADOLESCENCE AND BREAKDOWN edited by Simon Meyerson Foreword by Robert Gosling London GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN Boston Sydney © George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, 1975 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, 40 Museum Street, London WC1A1LU, UK George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 4TE, UK Allen & Unwin Inc., 9 Winchester Terrace, Winchester, Mass 01890, USA George Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd, 8 Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia First published in 1975 Second impression 1981 ISBN 0 04 150053 9 hardback 0 04 150054 7 paperback Printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford, Surrey Dedicated to my seven brothers and sisters to my neighbourhood slum-kids of all characters, creeds and colours who shared their adolescence with mine. And to Adolescents the world over who never fail to enrich me with the bewilderment and magic of their adolescence. FOREWORD In Adolescence an attempt has been made to describe some of the salient features of the adolescent and his world. Erikson1 has identified the central psychological challenge of the adolescent as the development and maintenance of fideli- ty. In so far as this is a never-ending challenge, although it may later be overshadowed by other psychological demands, it remains a hazard and liable to disruption. To the extent that this is so, breakdowns of one sort or another in later life may well be little different in their main features from disturb- ances encountered in adolescence. Of course such breakdown will look very different because of intervening biological maturation, psychological learning and elaboration, and changes in social circumstances. But if a failure in faithful- ness, whether to people or ideals, is what has taken place, it will be the anguish that is peculiar to adolescence that recurs. Obviously developmental achievements prior to adoles- cence may also be lost temporarily in later breakdowns. Erikson describes these as the achievements of coherence in being, of the capacity for hope, trust and confidence, of the ability to assert will and purpose and the achievement of competence. Any of these achievements, if none too well established, will be the first to go under stressful experiences in later life. The loss of some of them may well be the leading feature of a disturbance of development during adolescence as it may in later episodes. But to the extent that the newly developing capacity for fidelity is what is at hazard, the troubled times of an adolescent are special. When the pains of the adolescent or of his environment exceed a certain point the helping professions are sometimes mobilised. Some sort of breakdown has occurred. In Adoles- cence and Breakdown Simon Meyerson has assembled the deliberations of a number of his colleagues who have been so Foreword used. They inevitably give a rather lugubrious or frightening picture of adolescent experience and by the nature of their preoccupation talk little about all that is well. A less one- sided picture is presented by many of the same authors in Adolescence.2 But here they tell us about how things can go wrong, when this has happened, various kinds of help can be offered. Such studies can in the tradition of much clinical investigation indicate to us what the developmental pro- cesses are that have failed or come to grief. Knowledge about development is thereby increased and more rational measures for intervening suggested. But in addition, those chiefly concerned with breakdowns in later life may learn a lot just by being shown some processes in purer culture than they are ever likely to see. Robert Gosling Tavistock Clinic April 1974 REFERENCES 1. E. H. Erikson, Insight and Responsibility (London, Faber, 1964). 2. The companion volume Adolescence: The Crises of Adjustment is referred to as Adolescence throughout this book for the sake of brevity.
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