Mangs, K., Martell, B. (1995). 0-20 years in psychoanalytic perspective. Student literature. Grove

"Early adolescence is the time of admiration, idolization and warmth. The partially withdrawn charges from the early objects can be disposed of for new relationships… As a step towards maturity from the idealized parental objects, one can consider the transitional figures with idol quality that are plentiary in the adolescence. You admire and identify with everything from actors, sports stars, youth leaders to older successful peers. The emotions can be swarming, sensual or respectfully engaged… Continued idealization even in adults can be a sign of immaturity." (p251)

He can also resort to a narcissist defense with the upload of the self, which manifests itself in self-absorption and megalomana fantasies and grandeur dreams. This escape can be salvage, necessary and adaptive. The phased defenses, often regressive but adaptive, lead the development further, while the inhibitory defenses require countercharging and thus bind energy." (p254)

High-doping scene (about 14-16 years)

"The transition from the early adolescens is gradual and manifests itself, among other things, in a more purposeful focus on already formulated life issues, such as "who am I?" and "what is the meaning of life?" Eventually, the normal adolescent arrives at a clearer view of himself and can at least answer the first question with a slightly safer "this is me"." (p256)

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What leads to acceptance of the existential conditions:

Depending on the theoretical frame of reference, this process can be described in different ways. But a healthy personality development means that gradually, with retakes and obstacles, the individual should reach that in adulthood can have a good life. This freud so heartily formulated as an ability to love and work (ref).

This maturity is gradual, continuing normally throughout life. A basic fit should not come too late, but also not too early. A teenager who is wise and mastered can make a distressing impression.

"Finally, it can be stated that children (at least in our culture) who at this stage [early adolescens: 12-14 years old] do not experience conflicts with parents have either stubbornly displaced their impulses, both the aggressive and the libidinous, or possibly have such weak sexual and aggressive impulses that the self can manage to master them." (p254)

Or, referring to Anna Freud (1958, in the book), that "the adolescence is a break in a previously calm development and that if the equilibrium consisted in the adolescence, this would be abnormal". (p256)

"The rapidly increasing intellectual sphere of interest and the dynamic emotional state includes religious and aesthetic issues and experiences, as well as philosophical, social and political interests and engagement. The world of adolescents is expanding and expanding in almost all areas." (p258)

Unconscious fantasies:

Archaic performances… "In some unconscious fantasies there is an obscure desire for the end of the world. So a nuclear war can be seen as a prerequisite for an upcoming golden age. A few chosen ones will then have total possession of the land (mother) without competitors (without father, without siblings). The Father is in the way, the one who hinders the desires to possess the mother's body." (p259)

"In the image of the madonna and the child, the immaculate fertility is worshipped and idealized i.e. the role of the father is denied and thus also the sexuality of the mother. Nature, mother earth, untouched by the interventions of man (man) becomes an ideal; a view that, in the long run, could lead to anti-technology." (p259)

In the adolescens there are also homosexual elements and tendencies, which psychoanalytic theory delves a lot into, but which lead too far to try to reproduce or argue for here.

"It can be liberating to grow up, to grow up with the authorities, to stand on your own two feet and find that the world is not so frighteningly big. But it is also sad to leave a childhood world that was thought to exist mostly only for oneself and to lose any illusions about parental and/or their own greatness (omnipotence)." (p260)

The defenses that are central to the high-level scene are displacement, reaction formation (to deal with one's own aggressiveness), as well as intellectualization, asceticism, and narcissism (p263)

"Ascetic exercises and activities that produce self-imposed pressing affective and sensory states provide an experience of dominion over threatening urges and thus promote self-esteem." (p263)

"Narcissan defenses tend to be inhibiting. In order to spare self-esteem in the face of failure, the adolescent may not develop their skills and opportunities. The teenager can instead live on an imaginary greatness and not see his real situation or his limited ability, nor does it test it in reality, but flees to fantasies and dreams of greatness." (p263)

"Winnicott's 'transitional area', the area of transformation, is a resting place where inner and outer reality are kept separate and yet allied. This world of oncoming controversial realities does not have to be challenging and demanding, but can be stimulating and inspiring. Artistic experiences and activities in all forms belong here as well as religious and other experiences and engagements of all kinds." (p268)

As an expression of "unresolved oedipal conflicts" in adult individuals, the authors write (referring to Pentti Ikonen, 1986), the authors mention cynicism, which rests on deep disappointment, which can manifest itself as "a cynical philosophizing about the futility of life stating that love can never be satisfied except possibly in the imagination". (p270)

"The young man stubbornly remains in his crisis and adolescent position, not without a certain satisfaction, and tries to reconcile the satisfaction of childhood with the privileges of the adult. There is also a clear resistance to regression in conjunction with the processing of consolidating processes. This means that the drift and I development towards maturity and adulthood is delayed, so that the pregenital urges that are reactivated do not go towards genital maturity or that the self retains magical thinking that inhibits the possibility of reality testing. This inhibition is marked in extended adolescens and can perpetuate omnipotent performances.

Libidine in contact with the opposite sex, often persists at an immature level. However, interests and ideals can be a significant ingredient in the Community and the counterparty is often strikingly similar or diametrically different from the Oedipal parent. The notion of not having to choose between a male or a female identity is stubbornly preserved and is in fact the reason why the adolescence process is not abandoned." (p271-272)

In the case of a failed adolescence, "breakdown, borderline, and psychosis-like conditions" (p272)

Primary and secondary processes:

"The primary process follows the principle of desire over the principle of reality. Thought and action often become the same as well as a desire and its fulfillment. The primary process is sovereign, it generalizes, nullifies time and space as well as opposites and causalities. Densification and displacement of a content is common and negation is possible. Parts may stand for wholes and wholes may account for parts … _Secondary process_ on the other hand, it is seen as more objective and sensible why it would come _later_ in development. The secondary process uses means such as logic, order, and the like. It stands for both the stable and flexible and helps us to clarify different phenomena. Negation is not possible here." (307-308)

NB! Religion keeps opportunities open that are similar to the possibilities of the primary process. But in fairytale form, and therefore it is perhaps less risky. But in a spirituality with "scientific" claims, which so explicitly asserts it is not about believing in these beliefs, but knowing them?

"A special affinity with the way the primary process works characterizes children, artists and other creative people." (p308)

"… what in psychotics can act as a primary process is sometimes primitive secondary processes or perhaps primary processes characterized by primitive secondary processes." (p308)

"Collaboration between the two processes does not always work smoothly. Some, despite high intelligence, may find it difficult to allow themselves primary processes and find it difficult to understand emotions and process them, as well as difficulty understanding the language of the primary process with symbols and metaphors, especially if these concern their own self-esteem." (p308)

Div:

"_Den narcissistic nutidsmänniskan_, the new human type described as a self-absorbed consumer, superficial, unhistorical and lonely." (p314)

On the relationship of narcissism and the finiteness of life, the authors write: "Recognizing the finiteness of existence also involves perpetuating one's own mortality and being able to establish oneself accordingly. Here Kohut became speculative and moved with cosmic concepts. Kohut envisioned _en higher form of narcissism_ that bears some resemblance to the infant's supposed primary narcissism — a kind of experience of a community in timeless existence." (p315)

"Bodegård writes with instructive examples, a doctor's experiences of adolescents and children faced with the finiteness of life (1979, 1992).

_The teenager's quest is towards independence, a promise (or threat) that will begin to be fulfilled and it will therefore be extremely difficult to leave life. If the adolescent is given the opportunity to take a position on measures himself, reflection time, etc. may be saved somewhat by independence. The opposition adolescent is then less likely to lose self-esteem and healthy sovereignty and to "hook into prematurely reality-adapted aging". (p315)

Oedipus

"The Oedipus complex is not a special cause of neurosis; There are no _special_ causes of neuroses. However, it takes a level of mental development, equivalent to that achieved in the oidipal phase, in order to develop such an advanced mental performance as a neurosis." (p165)

The benefits of a briefed oidipal "crisis":

The child has experienced a crush.

A preliminary sexual orientation on the opposite sex has been established

The child has undergone an internal developmental grieving process

The child has been taken with an internal conflict

The difference between fantasy and reality has become clearer.

Body image and gender identity have been strengthened

Omnipotent performances have been reduced

Identifications favoured

The overself was structured and

Incest has become taboo as well as killing

(p. 166)

Regression

"… to recreate a past in the present." (p176)

"Regressions regarding psychosexual _drifter_ usually occur to fixation points. These often occur at too little, too little or jerky operational satisfaction and usually exert a psychological craving to these points." (p176)

"Regressions in the _self_ , as in the example above during lasting regression, often result in the ability that a particular child last acquired first being lost. However, this does not apply to a step-by-step retreat, but rather refers to certain hierarchies of functions and structures. These may have been reinforced by traumatic experiences as well as by experiences of what provides security and the ability to cope. Such functions can exert as strong a refressive attraction as fixation points." (p177)