THE EMERGENCE OF THE ADOLESCENT SELF - NA RCISSISM AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

The author describes the development of the adolescent self as a three -stage process. After termination of the accord between the young pers on and the parents that marks the latency period, the adolescent creat es a carefully guarded inner reality serving to distance him/her from infantile images of the self and the parents. In the second stage, the young person achieves stability by electing narcissistic configuratio ns (self-aggrandisement, dissociation, turbulent self with daydream fa ntasies) which are described here as transitional phenomena and assess ed by Streeck-Fischer much less negatively than by other authors. The capacity for self-distance that evolves in this stage and the attendan t potential for self-definition in constant oscillation between repeti tion and re-creation brings the process of adolescence to its close.