“The Body is a time-bomb”: Urgency and crisis in the transition from youth to adulthood

by | Vol 24 (2) 2006

This article poses three related questions on the basis of a clinical example of a psychotic young man who develops a suicidal crisis.First of all there is the question of the cause of this crisis, at a moment when the subject makes the transfer from school life to ‘adult life’. A particular fragility (and the inability of others to recognize this) seems to cause this crisis. Secondly: what is the goal of clinical work in a psychiatric setting? It is clear that we must support the solutions of the subject itself, instead of focusing on our ideology of therapeutic objectives and workplans. Thirdly, what is the relationship between remedial education and psychoanalysis? An educational/corrective approach is completely incompatible with the ethics of psychoanalysis. The question of whether a reciprocal influence is possible is posed throughout the article which, amongst other things, problematizes the concept of “school”.

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