This article explores the role of academic learning in the processes of subjectivation in adolescents who have been designated as gifted. It analyzes the way that investing in learning can support or weaken narcissism, depending on how adequately the school setting meets specific needs. The psychical and institutional conditions for dropping out of school are analyzed using a clinical vignette.
Adolescence, 2026, 44, 2, 379-390.
We explore the issue of dropping out of school at the onset of adolescence with regard to the pubertary process that is starting, at the crossroads where a depressive core meets an “original” rereading of founding fantasies. The co-construction of subject and environment seems central here, as it summons up the dimension of the link, even if only to undermine it. A clinical vignette will illustrate our argument and allow us to explore the hypothesis that what causes the hitch at the start of adolescence is related to homoeroticism that has been called up again and will have to be overhauled.
Adolescence, 2021, 39, 2, 379-390.