The author links abuse (betrayal by adults of the child’s expectation of the support necessary to its development) to the intolerance of prolonged dependence, which is part of the human condition and lays the groundwork for the insecurity that makes one vulnerable to narcissistic and even sexual seduction. He describes the consequences of these clinical conjunctions in the disabused adolescent that the abused child has become, and the issues in treatment.
Between fetishizing a body that has become a gauge of the subject’s value, and maintaining play as a way to obtain narcissistic and libidinal satisfaction, sports have become a source of investment where the subject, the social and the political meet. Using the biography of Andre Agassi, the famous tennis player of the 1990’s, we will explore the different aspects of parental control – in this case, a father’s – of the psychical fate of a top athlete.
Adolescence, 2014, 32, 2, 259-272.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7