Trauma e psicopatologia in adolescenza : fra la ricerca e la clinica

The Authors underline the renewed attention payed by modern psychoanalysis to trauma, and present some hypotheses of attachment theory which are supported by many empirical studies about the relevance of the adolescent passage in reorganizing the sense of self and one's ability to reflect on one's own past significant experience in order to enhance future development of autonomy and affective relations in adult age. They then discuss the pervasiveness of early traumatic experiences as risk factors for psychopathology, as they attack that fundamental ability to mentalize in adolescence and later hinder clinical process in analysis. To exemplify their argumentation, the Authors present two clinical vignettes which document how an analytic work in adolescence could be fundamental for the resolution of early traumas. [Publisher's Text].