Page - 34 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

34 Psychosexual development in puberty Michael Feldman further extends this notion of the triangular space, describ- ing how the child deals with his own thoughts. If he can establish connections between his own thoughts just as his parents come together in sexual intercourse, then he can establish new, creative thoughts. The way in which the child has inter- nalized the Oedipal couple – whether he sees it as creative or destructive, vital or inflexible – constitutes the model for experiencing his own thoughts and their interconnections. One important consequence of this view of the oedipal configurations . . . has an influence on the (patient’s) basic mental functions. If the patient negotiates the Oedipus complex in a relatively healthy way, he has an internal model of an intercourse that is, on balance, a creative activity. This seems to be directly connected with the development of the patient’s capacity to allow thoughts and ideas to interact in a kind of healthy intercourse. On the other hand, the phantasy that any connection forms a bizarre or predominantly destructive couple seems to result in damaged, perverse or severely inhibited forms of thinking. (Feldman 1998, 106) In place of fantasies of omnipotence, confidence in one’s own creative capac- ity takes the upper hand. This clear border between the parents’ generation and the child’s generation constitutes an important step in the child’s consciousness, bringing with it clarity and differentiation in thinking. In the latency phase, emotional turbulences lessen and are followed by a phase of consolidation and relative security. The child develops his psychic, emotional and cognitive capabilities, turning towards the outer world (Diem -Wille, 2018). He largely adopts his parents’ values, which constitute a reliable inner and outer order, and does not question his membership in his family. The child between the ages of seven and eleven (latency) has achieved some kind of balance, but this balance depends on the world being relatively stable, both internally and exter- nally. He lives in relative harmony with the inner and outer worlds of parents and school (see Anderson 1998, 3). This world then changes radically and will never be the same as it was. The crisis of adolescence extends into every area of life. Not only is the world no longer the same, but the adolescent is no longer the same person he was, with his child’s feelings, wishes and fears. Nevertheless, psy- choanalysis has shown that the core of a child’s personality structure is preserved, determining the way he overcomes this crisis. Therein lies a tremendous source of great tension. Anderson comments that: part of us wants never to have to give up our early desires and the means of gratifying them and now is confronted by changes that more than ever are in conflict with this world. Sometimes directly opposing old satisfactions and at others, threatening the self because it offers the infant self the power to gratify some of its most dangerous wishes – both sexual and violent ones. (Anderson 1998, 2)