The author explores the underlying mechanics of the treatment of an adolescent girl, from the establishment of the treatment setting, through handling of a massive transference, up to the support offered to attempts at disengagement. Transference, in its various representations – disharmonic, negative, lateral – is considered with reference to the bonds maintained with the transitional object, which, once used and abused, lets itself be releggated to limbo in order to allow for the investment of new objects.
For adolescents evolving in treatments for “ attacks on the body ”, it is indispensable to work on the therapeutic setting in a very specific way. The use of institutional space allows them to find possibilities for investing transference spaces free of any paradoxical or harmful potential. The gamble on therapeutic effects is ambitious and complex, for the caregivers as much as for the youngsters. The necessity of taking into account the parent’s suffering, especially in its pubertary dimension, is indispensable to the success of the adolescent’s treatment plan.
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