Page - 159 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Lost by the wayside – overstepping limits 159 with nobody provided to confide in. As Winnicott (1984) writes, psychoanalysts usually consider this kind of violence and aggression as founded in long depriva- tion, humiliation and lack of love. Paradoxically, when an adolescent becomes aggressive, this constitutes a sign of hope as an alternative to deep depression, apathy or suicide. The psychoanalytic explanation for this vicious circle of hate, fear and destruction directed against the self or others is not a weak superego (conscience), but in fact a cruel, merciless superego from early childhood, never ameliorated by loving, empathetic parents and a secure relationship. If then fear of the super -ego, either for external or internal psychic reasons, oversteps certain bounds, the individual may be compelled to destroy people and this compulsion may for the basis for the development either of a crimi- nal type of behavior or of a psychosis. . . . Hate is often used as the most effective cover for love. (Klein 1934, 260) Children’s fears are nurtured not only through their fantasy but also through unloving parents. An especially grave impetus is the real experience of being rejected or given away by the parents. Some “criminals” may seem to be lack- ing in feelings of love, but such feelings might be only repressed due to a kind of betrayal from the mother or father, who seemed not to return the love from their child; consequently, he now hates them – even forgetting he ever loved them. For some criminals, the world consists only of enemies, and the individual must survive alone. Love is not absent in the criminal, but it is hidden and buried in such a way that nothing but analysis can bring it to light. Since the hated persecuting object was originally to the tiny baby the object of all its love and libido, the criminal is now in the position of hating and persecuting his own loved object. (Klein, ibid) B. depicted his periods at homes, replete with physical and sexual abuse, as low points in the lifeline he drew. We may infer from his letter to the social worker how great his longing is for someone on whom he can rely: possibly, the social worker is the only person who is concerned about him up to the end of his life. Prison has become a substitute home for B., who dies there under hospice care. Case study: adolescent R. At the time of the study, R. – a Serbian citizen – is 18. He is relatively short, carefully dressed, friendly in conversation and polite. However, Staudner- Moser had the impression that R. was somehow trying to pull her leg with his friendly remarks (1997, 80ff ). Born in Vienna, R. returned there after his