Page - 47 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Psychosexual development in puberty 47 of art were perceived in their time as provocative and were either forbidden or censored – a result no doubt intended by the rebellious young artists who created them. The depiction of adolescent sexuality in works of art The Sorrows of Young Werther (Goethe 2004) – first published 1774 – is con- sidered to be the first novel centering on the stormy feelings of young people. In letter form, Goethe brings the reader into the hopeless love young Werther had for a married woman, Lotte, depicting his emotional wounds, hopes, love and desperation until the point of his suicide. The reader follows his intimate feelings as revealed to a close friend in letter form. The great success of this novel, above all with young readers, shows that Goethe caught the mood of his epoch, often characterized as Sturm und Drang (“storm and stress”). This mood also corresponds to the particular emotional hue of adolescence. Synopsis The young law student Werther leaves his hometown in order to forget an unhappy, Platonic love and to bring his mother’s inheritance into order. He enjoys his lib- eration from everyday duties and undertakes long walks in nature, which he also describes in images: A peculiar serenity has taken over my whole soul, like the sweet spring mornings that I enjoy with all my heart. I’m alone and I take joy in my life in this region, which was just made for a soul like mine. I’m so happy, dear friend, so deeply immersed in the feeling of a tranquil existence, that my art is suffering from it. . . . I’ve never been a greater painter than in these moments. . . . When I lie in tall grass . . . a thousand different grasses attract my attention; when I feel closer to my heart, the swarming micro- cosm between their blades, the innumerable, unfathomable forms of the grubs und gnats. (Goethe 2004, 7) Through mutual friends, he becomes acquainted with Lotte, the oldest daughter of a widowed civil servant. Werther describes a particularly vivid scene when he observes Lotte taking care of her six younger siblings: I caught sight of the most charming scene I have ever beheld. In the vestibule six children, ages two to eleven, were swarming around a shapely girl of middle height who was wearing a simple white gown with pink bows on her arms and bosom. She was holding a loaf of black bread and was cutting slices for the children around her, each slice proportioned to their age and appetite;