Page - 60 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

60 Psychosexual development in puberty fantasies with me – a space I offered her that she was able to use. At the beginning of one session, Elfi suggested that we write a story together, where we alternated sentence for sentence. Elfi wrote the heading, then I wrote the first sentence. My summer holidays (story) Analyst: This summer I went with my parents to Egypt. Elfi: I took my pal and was glad he came. I never thought he would do it. It will be fun and nice and I hope we’ll have fun. Analyst: The first evening, there was a beach party. Elfi: It was cool, we were silly and danced funny. It looked so strange, because we couldn’t dance right and just did it somehow or other, stumbling, cool. We danced hip -hop too, since he and I go to a hip -hop dance school. Analyst: We got very hot and we wanted to go swimming in the sea, but unfortu- nately we didn’t have any bathing suits. Elfi: Then we went to bed to sleep, each in his own room. I had room 3045 and he had 3047. He had a room all to himself, how unfair. We had a friendship hug and said goodnight. To be Continued Tuesday The Bla -bla -bla Of Bla -bla -bla Discussion In this sequence from our analytic sessions, I was attempting to keep my contri- butions openly enough formulated to give Elfi the opportunity for expressing her wishes, hopes and fears more clearly and completely. It was important that I not bring my own ideas into the story, even if they were well -meant, and instead explore Elfi’s inner world. She confided thoughts to me that she hardly dared to formulate alone. Presumably, it was easier to formulate her hope of a boy’s taking interest in her in her analyst’s presence, whom she fantasized being in a happy relationship. Elfi, who has problems with grammar due to her intellectual inadequacy, and thus never wanted to write (she was also reluctant to read), now wrote complete descriptive sentences for several hours – often in a fantasy grammar, but clearly comprehensible. She could express her fantasy of bringing a “pal”, showing that she finds boys and girls good for each other. She can imagine a good, happy coexistence, a healthy sexuality, and she knows that her analyst can accept this without envying her. She is interested in the budding relationship between her and the “pal”, which is a good sign for her awakening vital energy, previously so inhibited.