After reviewing the different axes of filiation according to J. Guyotat, with which the narrative axis may be associated (B. Golse, M. R. Moro), and relocating the issue of psychical bisexuality with regard to the precursors of sexual differentiation, this article will offer some reflections and clinical illustrations of adolescents’ aggression as it relates to identity and narrative filiation on the one hand, and the psychical bisexuality of adoptive parents on the other.
The question at stake consists in showing and analyzing two movements of sexualization at adolescence and their vicissitudes. The former psychical movement, both chaste and » courtly » is the sine qua non condition of the latter. It enables recognition and elaboration of emotions, the surge of personal thought and the acceptance of otherness. During this first psychical movement the almost delirious illusion of belonging to both sexes is gradually left behind through the love experience using the partner as a double who is only a little dissimilar, thus enabling the subject to disentangle himself from the Oedipian parents. Thanks to such an emotional experience, the adolescent alters his links with his identenfication and love objets and becomes more aware of some of his modes of thought.
The second movement widens the capacity to learn from experience, insight, the acceptance of otherness, and enables a genital, stable and flourishing sexual closeness through the integration of psychical bisexuality.
In the analysis of Felix, Klein explored pathological inhibitions that hampered the thought processes of this adolescent. She discovered that thinking is born from sufficiently creative bonds between the internal parents. The concepts of internal object and unconscious fantasy constitute, in this sense, one of the most innovative aspects of this analysis. Klein argues that revisiting the early Œdipus complex in puberty is an indispensable preliminary to the joint development of psychical bisexuality and “ psychical puberty ”.
This text brings to a close the series of articles « Melanie Klein as an analyst of adolesents ». In the course of this series, the author has successively studied the cases of four adolescents. Three were Klein’s patients: « Felix», « Ilse», and « Willy» illustrated the concepts of internal objects, unconscious fantasies, and the feminine phase common to both sexes. The fourth, « Fabien Especel », was the hero of a fantastic novel whose projective identifications Klein explored.
As part of this conclusion, the author revisits the Kleinian conception of the childhood roots of « psychical puberty » and the theory behind the technique used with adolescents. In doing this, he describes certain new ideas which, sown by the thinking of Klein, came to fruition after her death. In particular, new ways of thinking about the transference/counter-transference pair, through explorations of the epistemophilic drive and projective identification.
Revue semestrielle de psychanalyse, psychopathologie et sciences humaines, indexée AERES au listing PsycINFO publiée avec le concours du Centre National du Livre et de l’Université de Paris Diderot Paris 7