The meeting of André Breton and Louis Aragon at Val de Grace hospital in 1917 was the origin of a passionate friendship that would lead to the publication of the Surrealist Manifesto in 1917 and A Wave of Dreams in 1924. Aragon’s letters to Breton from 1918 to 1931 reveal the bond of rivalry and jealousy that united and separated them until they broke off their relationship in the 1930.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 205-218.
While reference to destructiveness is essential to understanding the psychic dynamic inherent to the deployment of war, it should be associated with narcissistic issues at work in both the group and the individual. The choice of an enemy against whom one can unleash the violence of drives can be a solution for addressing the fragilization of the Ego in adolescence. So how do we participate clinically in the transformation of the warrior dynamic?
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 193-204.
The film The Wave is inspired by a true story about a pedagogical project that is supposed to make students in a high school aware of the dangers of recreating a totalitarian movement. The evolution over several days of the Wave’s experiment, with its sometimes warlike outbursts, shows how the issues of a teacher’s very particular individual project intertwine with issues inherent to adolescence and with the force of group phenomena and their accompanying regressive consequences.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 182-192.
The works of D. Meltzer are internationally renowned; however, his works on adolescence are relatively little known in France. In this article, we investigate two central paths: we give a synthesis the essential aspects of Meltzer’s conception of adolescence in order to make them better known, then we show how his representation of groups of adolescents contributes to his representation of adolescence.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 169-182.
We propose to revisit the concept of infantile psychosis through the story of Youssef. When the therapeutic situation is confronted with particularly massive transference movements, an encounter can be co-constructed around the phenomenon of confusion. According to this principle, it is a matter of accepting this temporary state in order to start towards a process of transformation and differentiation. The relational body can, in this regard, appear as an original anchor point.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 155-167.
When faced with adolescent scarifications, care providers waver between powerlessness and guilt, sometimes even to the point of acting out their aggressiveness. As a way of getting beyond control issues, group work helps to transform personal questioning into professional questioning. The therapeutic posture then becomes that of a caregiver who is able to put up with failure and hate, to let himself be deformed with being destroyed (or destroying himself), thus supporting the process of separation in adolescence.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 141-153.
In Mexico, within a context of violence, psychic constructions are affected by trauma. When the socio-cultural and familial environment offers aggressive scenes, psychic hostility in adolescence necessarily intensifies. Using a setting based on psychoanalysis, we will show how playful and artistic resources enable an exploration of identity constructions and traumatic traces.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 129-140.
The imaginary constructions of Léo, aged 20, are all-mighty and protective war machines that play out in dystopian narratives. They reveal the underlying presence of an influencing machine that has something paranoid and threatening for the pubertary. In tension with this influencing machine, Léo’s “de-influencing machine” tends to counter and reverse the destructive drives and support the groundwork for a unified body image.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 115-127.
Adolescence is marked by uncertainties and psychic fragility exacerbated by a world in crisis and at war. Using an encounter mediated by a psychological assessment, we have tried to reflect upon what makes the tyrant fascinating. Identification with the hero, whether good or tyrannical, bears witness to a search for meaning and re-narcissisation. The role of the clinical psychologist is to accompany without imposing a model, allowing the young person to construct his or her own subjectivity.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 103-114.
During the passage through adolescence, made up of paradoxes and internal conflicts, between autonomy and restriction, adolescents are subjected to pressures and violence exacerbated by a threatening social context. “War” symbolizes their quest to exist, which is marked by destructive behaviors, and reveals the anxiety and affective fragility of youngsters faced with a world where the absence of memory and of the transmission of ideals desensitize one towards to violence.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 1, 87-101.