Seite - 51 - in Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Puberty and Adolescence - The Inner Worlds of Teenagers and their Parents

Psychosexual development in puberty 51 excuse, he calls this his “weakness”. He resolves not to think of her, “which natu- rally causes me to think of her all the more” (Ibid, 29). The fantasy level is just as important as reality – for instance, when Francois helps Marthe pick out furniture for her marital bedroom; he is certain that she will think of him, not her husband, during her wedding night. Like the first taste of a strange fruit, my first kiss had been something of a disappointment. We derive our greatest pleasure not from novelty but from familiarity. A few minutes later I had not only grown accustomed to Marthe’s mouth – I could not do without it. And then she spoke of depriving me of it for ever. (Radiguet 1968, 41) Although Marthe is only two years older than Francois, she is described as an “older woman”. She belongs to another man. Francois’ life is determined by his budding sexuality. Since he has dropped out of school, he can completely concen- trate on his mood swings and inner ambivalence, examining his own thoughts, fantasies and behavior. With great candor, Radiguet presents the reflections of a 16 -year -old who seeks to weave his lover into a net of passion, meanwhile real- izing that he is caught in this same net. Here, there is no regulation from a peer group or parents concerned with their son’s development: both parents tolerate or overlook the dangers involved, leaving the two adolescents to their own devices. The book’s tragic end corresponds to the dramatic synopsis of many daydreams. The swift switch between happiness and desperation, proximity and loneliness, greed and renunciation also encapsulates the adolescent’s search for identity. The dream of losing oneself in an amorous relationship becomes a nightmare. Without the support or aid of understanding parents, without outer limits and structure, Francois and Marthe come to grief with their difficulties. The Oedipal pattern once again manifests itself at the novel’s conclusion, with Francois wishing that he, not Jacques, is the father of Marthe’s child. In the novel, Radiguet lets her die, the “faithless mother”, symbolizing the Oedipal mother who has a sexual relation- ship with the father and neglects her son’s wishes. Here, murderous hate against the mother becomes evident, who prefers the father and shuts out the small son. In bitter triumph, he learns that Marthe has named the child after Francois. According to Raymond Radiguet, he based the novel on his own experiences: he also dropped out of school at 15 and fell in love with an older woman. This painful experience of separation – the theme of his novel – caused him to move to Paris and form a close relationship with Jean Cocteau. As a third example of an artistic treatment of adolescents taking distance from their families, I will now discuss the film Bad Taste, a “splatter film”. Bad Taste (1987), the first film of New Zealand director Peter Jackson, is an excellent illustration of primitive modes of experience, concrete processes of splitting and fantasies of forced entry into the mother’s body – in this case, fan- tasies come true. Since this film, Peter Jackson has become famous through his trilogy Lord of the Rings, also winning several Oscars.