Page - 126 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

126 Development of thinking Thus, adolescents can understand and develop theories and participate in societal questions and ideologies of adults. This is often motivated by the wish to change – or, hypothetically, to destroy – society in order to create a better one. Complex thinking Thinking in formal operations is more complex than in concrete operations. Thinking in concrete operations tends to focus on one aspect of a thing – usually, the most obvious one – whereas formally operational thinkers are more likely to see a variety of aspects of an idea or situation. Complex thinking is necessary to understand a metaphor or sarcasm. Metaphors are complex because they have more than one meaning. Poems and novels are replete with metaphors – so to speak, they have a second, less obvious meaning. One example from T.S. Eliot’s poem “A Dedication to My Wife” (1957a): No peevish winter wind shall chill No sullen tropic sun shall wither The roses in the rose garden which is ours and ours only. Here, the concrete level is embodied in the hard conditions of the rose garden in winter, but this image has a second meaning as well: the poet’s optimism that the love between him and his second wife will survive life’s vicissitudes – as the roses do. In this case, it was a “May -December romance”, since Eliot’s second wife Valerie, his secretary at Faber & Faber, was 38 years younger than he was. Eliot thought that with Valerie he could be happy for the first time in his life. Adolescents can comprehend such complex meanings. Children have no clue. When children and adolescents are questioned regarding a metaphor, their divergence in understanding becomes clear. The saying “One bad apple spoils the barrel” was presented for interpretation to both children and ado- lescents. An 11 -year -old wrote, “There is a big barrel of apples, and a woman picks up one bad one out that is rotten, and there are worms in it, and the worms go to all the other apples”. An adolescent wrote, “One bad comment can spoil the entire conversation” (Duthie et al. 2008, quoted in Arnett and Hughes 2012, 87). Pre -adolescents also have similar difficulties in understanding sarcastic remarks such as “That’s a nice dress” or “Your new haircut looks great”. Is this only meant literally as a compliment, or does it mean its opposite? Adolescents love TV shows that are ironic and sarcastic, such as The Simpsons, or magazines such as MAD. Their conversations are often marked by irony and sarcasm, such as when text messages imitate the formal language of adults, including salutations and “Yours truly” – even though they find these funny.