Adolescence & Developmental Breakdown: A Psychoanalytic View

242 Pages·1995·5.395 MB·English

by  Moses Laufer, M. Egle Laufer

Adolescence and
Developmental
Breakdown
A Psychoanalytic View
-if"'
M O S ES
L A U F ER

M. E G LE
L A U F ER

k a r n ac
A S S I C S
CL
ADOLESCENCE

AND

DEVELOPMENTAL BREAKDOWN

Adolescence and

Developmental Breakdown

A Psychoanalytic View
BY
MOSES LAUFER
M. EGLE LAUFER
KARNAC

LONDON NEW YORK
First published in 1984
Yale University Press
with assistantce from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund
This edition reprinted 1995 with their permission by
H. Karnac (Books) Ltd,
118 Finchley Road,
London NW3 5HT
Reprinted 2002
Copyright © 1984 by Yale University
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the
publisher
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Laufer, Moses
Adolescence and Developmental Breakdown:
Psychoanalytic View. - New ed. -
(Maresfield Library)
L Title II. Laufer, M. Eg\€ III. Series
616.89022
ISBN: 978 1 85575 108 8
www.karnacbooks.com
Printed and bound by Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastbourne
TO ANNA FREUD
Anna Freud told us of her pleasure in having this book dedi­
cated to her, but she died before its publication. She was of
great help to us over many years in enabling our work to be
carried out. Ou r wish to dedicate the book to her was and is
our expression of our lasting gratitude.

Contents
Preface ix

I. ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT, PATHOLOGY, AND

BREAKDOWN 1

1. Adolescence and the Final Sexual Organization 3

2. Developmental Breakdown 21

3. The Body Image and Masturbation 36

4. The Female Adolescent, the Relationship

to the Body, and Masturbation 49

5. The Superego, the Idealized Body Image,

and Puberty 64

II. BREAKDOWN AND THE TREATMENT PROCESS 77

6. Breakdown, Transference, and Reconstruction 79

7. Object Relationships, the Use of the Body,

and Transference 95

8. Attempted Suicide in Adolescence: A Psychotic

Episode 112

III. CLINICAL ISSUES 133

9. Compulsive Behavior and the Central

Masturbation Fantasy: Clinical Implications 135

10. Developmental Foreclosure 157

11. Countertransference and the Adolescent's

Sexual Development 165

vii
viii CONTENTS
IV. ASSESSMENT 175

12. Assessment of Psychopathology in Adolescence 177

13. The Work of Assessment 196

References 211

Index 221
Preface
This book sets out to apply psychoanalytic discoveries to the
understanding of the disorders of adolescence, and to their
assessment and treatment. Our experience in treating both
adolescents and adults has convinced us that the period of
adolescence has a specific and essential contribution to make to
psychological life and that the psychic disruptions of this pe­
riod need to be understood differently from those of child­
hood and adulthood. This difference rests on the fact that ado­
lescence begins with physical sexual maturity, an event which
alters the course of psychic development and gives a meaning
to psychopathology during this period that is not similar dy­
namically to psychopathology in childhood or adulthood.
Some years ago, a very simple fact impressed us, one that led
us to question some of the existing explanations of the develop­
mental function of adolescence and the meaning of pathology
during this period. It seemed that the reported incidence of
suicide and attempted suicide was disproportionately high dur­
ing adolescence and that the conscious decision to kill oneself
did not exist as a social or clinical problem before adolescence.
Later we realized that our adolescent patients, unlike most of
our adult patients, seemed especially vulnerable either to at­
tacking their bodies physically or to doing something that
would, in fantasy, alter the image of their bodies, through ano­
rexia, obesity, self-mutilation, or drug-taking and addiction. In
addition, every one of our adolescent patients was deeply con­
cerned about the normality or the abnormality of his behavior
ix