Jean-Bernard Chapelier : « The great illusion » : Party and group process

The party condenses two contradictory expectations : one individual, that is, knowing how to find the ideal in a love and/or sexual partner ; the other, to recover the narcissistic security within the group that promises some incomparable pleasures. The choice is especially difficult because the two solutions have the same consequence: the happiness of « oceanic feeling ». Caught between fidelity to the group and the hope of falling in love, the teenager often opts for a third way, that of the quick search for a trance-like state brought about by the consumption of alcohol or narcotics.