Consultation in adolescence: hurried, terminable, interminable

The physiological ambivalence displayed by adolescents towards dependence on adults is an obstacle, at least initially, to a course of psychotherapy. A consultation is often the only thing that can be offered to start with, and constitutes an essential stage even for those teenagers who go on to prove themselves able to benefit from therapy or analysis. The way this first meeting is handled is therefore crucial. The author investigates the difficulties and paradoxes of this consultation, the particular nature of the 'time' of the consultation compared to that of therapy, and the different internal attitude this requires of the analyst. She thus identifies two separate configurations--a hurried consultation and an interminable consultation--which can result when the consultation fails in its primary objectives. Both are connected with possible collusive elements in the professional linked to specific adolescent angst. The very detailed account of a consultation shows the 'journey' made by a 14 yearold starting from her urgent request to be freed from a symptom experienced as an incomprehensible obstacle, to her gradual development of curiosity towards herself and towards her own mental and emotional make-up, resulting in her acceptance of therapeutic treatment, which would initially have been impossible.