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Summary:
The adolescent of our times is above all a paradoxical being who can be seen as desiring autonomy while at the same times seeking parental dependence All this carries with it a potential psychic vulnerability with threats of anxiety (fear of change), of depression (mourning), or addictions (impossibility of renunciation). The stage of puberty can be compared to throwing a stone into the still waters of childhood, with its various concentric perturbations, of the body, of parental images, of society. Nothing is easy or harmonious. The adolescent has yet to determine his or her relational distance to others and to make his or her sexual choice This period includes the particular risks which come from searching an absolute, from an inability to accept limits (sex, life project). Reality can be disappointing and models unsatisfying. Adolescents are pressed by time whereas so-called social activities require much time, particularly where one is expected to respect the intimacy of others Medical research on adolescence concerns primarily conscious sexuality (observable behaviour), whereas clinical and therapeutic approaches take into account sexuality and sex life.