Destructivity and Helplessness in Adolescence: A Case Study

Abstract

The psychoanalytic reading about adolescent's issue reveals its transforming condition in subjects' drive. Psychic conflicts can acquire a traumatic character in this experience, becoming fundamental to investigate the adolescent conditions to confront and handle these intensities. It is known that from these movements, subjectivating and de-subjectivating vicissitudes take place. From this context, in this article, the objective is to explore the nuances of an adolescent process in order to illustrate the effects of helplessness and traumatic experiences. To accomplish that, it was decided to hold a case study, leading to a psychoanalytic theoretical-clinical problematization. It was concluded that, face the supremacy of traumatic de-subjectivating the destructivity presented itself as an important impeditive element of investments in an adolescent's life. Therefore, face the representations of pain manifested in adolescence, the psychoanalytic listening consolidates itself as an important resource, so the subject can recognize and nominate traumatic intensities, aiming to give psychic meaning.