title: A developmental disorder of late adolescence.
abstract: This paper discusses one type of psychological disorder commonly seen in late adolescents who have appeared well adjusted throughout their earlier adolescent years. The disorder comes to light when a web of established roles and relationships can no longer provide a sense of identity and substitute for genuine self-esteem. The loss of this defensive niche reveals the existence of significant developmental lags or deficits in self structure, self-object differentiation, and ego functions. These disorders typically reflect a complex mingling of oedipal-neurotic conflicts, immense difficulty with separation, and developmental-structural arrests. In the initial treatment relationship, the developmental deficits are most prominent. When they are addressed, a revival and reworking of earlier adolescent separation concerns becomes possible, and some developmental momentum is restored. Overall, these disorders require a conceptualization that can give full weight to the salience of self structural problems within basically neurotic personality organization.
mesh_terms: D000184:Acting Out; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001010:Anxiety, Separation / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D007207:Individuation; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010553:Personality Development; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012931:Social Environment; D014167:Transference, Psychology