The author offers a theoretical and clinical reflection on the relation between perversion and a form of primal group functioning particular to violent adolescents, who come together in a group redefined as horde. The author notes that, in perversion as in a horde, there is a structural inability to defer impulse and deal with it on one’s own. The unconscious fantasy that guides adolescents grouped in a horde is illustrated by a case of gang rape.

Adolescence, 2025, 43, 2, 387-401.