On Adolescence

301 Pages·2018·2.05 MB·English

by  Margot Waddell

ON ADOLESCENCE
Adolescence and adolescent states of mind have seldom captured so much
attention publicly, nor have they stirred so much anxiety and disturbance
privately. This long-acknowledged, problematic, transitional world between
childhood and adulthood is especially fraught these days, with the assaults and
pressures of contemporary culture and modern technology.
The heart of the book lies in the exploration of the inner lives of these young
people, whether or not they find their way to clinical services. It sets out to
illuminate the sorts of things that go wrong, and how we can help to address
them—the crises of identity, gender, loss, self-harm, bullying, depression, anger,
suicidal impulses, anxiety, and so much more. On Adolescence: Inside Stories
is intended for all those concerned with adolescence, and adolescent states of
mind, at whatever age or stage.
Margot Waddell is a Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalysis, where she is
currently the Chair of Publications. She has a background in Classics and
literature and took a PhD at Cambridge on George Eliot’s novels. She is a Child
Analyst and worked for many years as a Consultant Child and Adolescent
Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, London. She co-edits the Tavistock Clinic
Series. Her book Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality
was published by Karnac in 2002.
Tavistock Clinic Series
Margot Waddell, Jocelyn Catty, & Kate Stratton (Series Editors)
Recent titles in the Tavistock Clinic Series
Addictive States of Mind, edited by Marion Bower, Rob Hale, & Heather Wood
Assessment in Child Psychotherapy, edited by Margaret Rustin and Emanuela Quagliata
Childhood Depression: A Place for Psychotherapy, edited by Judith Trowell, with
Gillian Miles
Conjunctions: Social Work, Psychoanalysis, and Society, by Andrew Cooper
Consultations in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, edited by R. Peter Hobson
Contemporary Developments in Adult and Young Adult Therapy. The Work of the Tavistock
and Portman Clinics, Vol. 1, edited by Alessandra Lemma
Couple Dynamics: Psychoanalytic Perspectives in Work with the Individual, the Couple,
and the Group, edited by Aleksandra Novakovic
Doing Things Differently: The Influence of Donald Meltzer on Psychoanalytic Theory and
Practice, edited by Margaret Cohen & Alberto Hahn
Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality, by Margot Waddell
Internal Landscapes and Foreign Bodies: Eating Disorders and Other Pathologies, by
Gianna Williams
Living on the Border: Psychotic Processes in the Individual, the Couple, and the
Group, edited by David Bell & Aleksandra Novakovic
Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of
Psychotic Communication, by Marcus Evans
Melanie Klein Revisited: Pioneer and Revolutionary in the Psychoanalysis of Young
Children, by Susan Sherwin-White
Oedipus and the Couple, edited by Francis Grier
Organization in the Mind: Psychoanalysis, Group Relations, and Organizational
Consultancy, by David Armstrong, edited by Robert French
Psychoanalysis and Culture: A Kleinian Perspective, edited by David Bell
Reason and Passion: A Celebration of the Work of Hanna Segal, edited by David Bell
Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Adolescents with Depression: A Treatment
Manual, edited by Jocelyn Catty
Sibling Matters: A Psychoanalytic, Developmental, and Systemic Approach, edited by
Debbie Hindle & Susan Sherwin-White
Social Defences against Anxiety: Explorations in a Paradigm, edited by David Armstrong
& Michael Rustin
Surviving Space: Papers on Infant Observation, edited by Andrew Briggs
Talking Cure: Mind and Method of the Tavistock Clinic, edited by David Taylor
The Anorexic Mind, by Marilyn Lawrence
The Groups Book. Psychoanalytic Group Therapy: Principles and Practice, edited by
Caroline Garland
Therapeutic Care for Refugees: No Place Like Home, edited by Renos Papadopoulos
Thinking Space: Promoting Thinking about Race, Culture, and Diversity in Psychotherapy
and Beyond, edited by Frank Lowe
Towards Belonging: Negotiating New Relationships for Adopted Children and Those in
Care, edited by Andrew Briggs
Turning the Tide: A Psychoanalytic Approach to Mental Illness. The Work of the Fitzjohn’s
Unit, edited by Rael Meyerowitz & David Bell
Understanding Trauma: A Psychoanalytic Approach, edited by Caroline Garland
Waiting to Be Found: Papers on Children in Care, edited by Andrew Briggs
“What Can the Matter Be?”: Therapeutic Interventions with Parents, Infants, and Young
Children, edited by Louise Emanuel & Elizabeth Bradley
Young Child Observation: A Development in the Theory and Method of Infant
Observation, edited by Simonetta M. G. Adamo & Margaret Rustin
ON ADOLESCENCE
Inside Stories
Margot Waddell
Foreword by
Edna O’Shaughnessy
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2018 by Margot Waddell.
The right of Margot Waddell to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act
1988.
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.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–78220–526–5
Edited, designed, and typeset in Optima, Palatino, and Gill Sans
by Communication Crafts, East Grinstead
For my children, stepchildren, and grandchildren,
through whom and with whom I continue the life-long process
of growing up
“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life,
it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart
beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side
of silence.”
George Eliot, Middlemarch, Part II, Ch. 20, p. 226

CONTENTS
series editors’ preface ix
acknowledgements xiii
preface xv
foreword xvii
I
Context and background
1 Historical context 3
2 Internal worlds 15
II
Aspects of the adolescent experience
3 Adolescence 31
4 Managing the transition:
puberty and early adolescence 46
5 Models of learning 61
vii
viii contents
6 Groups and gangs 78
7 The psychodynamics of bullying 93
III
Clinical pictures
8 Assessing adolescents:
finding a space to think 115
9 A mind of one’s own:
the search for identity—a case history 133
10 Narcissism—an adolescent disorder? 155
11 The difficulty of diagnosis
in the liminal world of adolescence 172
12 Self-destructive states of mind 185
IV
Fictional worlds
13 Adolescent fiction:
the eerie and the upside down 203
14 Late-adolescent fictional lives 216
15 The green worlds of adolescent development 233
appendix 253
references 259
index 267
SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE
Margot Waddell, Jocelyn Catty, & Kate Stratton
Since it was founded in 1920, the Tavistock Clinic—now the
Tavi stock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust—has develo ped
a wide range of developmental approaches to mental health
which have been strongly influenced by the ideas of psychoanalysis.
It has also adopted systemic family therapy as a theoretical model and
a clinical approach to family problems. The Tavistock is now one of the
largest mental health training institutions in Britain. It teaches up to
600 students a year on postgraduate, doctoral, and qualifying courses
in social work, systemic psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry, nurs-
ing, and child, adolescent, and adult psychotherapy, along with 2,000
multidisciplinary clinicians, social workers, and teachers attending
Continuing Professional Development courses and conferences on
psychoanalytic observation, psychoanalytic thinking, and manage-
ment and leadership in a range of clinical and community settings.
The Tavistock’s philosophy aims at promoting therapeutic
methods in mental health. Its work is based on the clinical exper-
tise that is also the basis of its consultancy and research activities.
The aim of this Series is to make available to the reading public the
clinical, theoretical, and research work that is most influential at the
Tavistock. The Series sets out new approaches in the understanding
and treatment of psychological disturbance in children, adolescents,
and adults, both as individuals and in families.
ix