Anxiety in adolescence and its significance for psychoanalysis
Wiesse, J.; Weinstock-Kroczek, E.
Adolescence 24(94): 403-410
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-8449 PMID: 2763906 Document Number: 333359
The theme of this paper is the well-known resistance of adolescents to participate in analytic treatment and analysts' reservations about treating adolescents, which is perhaps less well known. Several reasons are discussed: For adolescents, the revival of separational and fusional anxieties during the process of individuation as well as resistance to the analytic setting are held responsible; analysts may lack sufficient awareness of their own adolescence and its resulting anxieties to be able to confront this developmental period. In addition, there are countertransference anxieties that are triggered and kept alive by the behavior of the juvenile patient. The different types of analyst anxieties as well as those of the adolescent under analysis are explained and their significance in the process of individuation and the course of therapy is noted.