Becoming an adult is a step in the process of subjectivation, insofar as it initiates a new encounter with external reality and causes a confrontation with many anxieties of abandonment and castration, which can take the form of school phobia. The author uses a reading of Georges Perec’s novel A Man Asleep, along with a clinical situation, to shed light on the nature and function of this symptom in the dynamic of post-adolescence.

Adolescence, 2026, 44, 2, 257-268.