[Evaluation of the change process during treatment of adolescent psychotics]

This study rests on work comparing the processes of change in the mental functioning of eleven psychotic teenagers through two perspectives: a psychological perspective centered on the comparison of two psychological examinations carried out at intervals of one and a half and three years; a psychiatric perspective taking into account elements supplied by the doctor and the nursing staff in the facility and concerning the evolution of each patient between the first and second psychological examination. The evolution was judged according to three factors liable to explain the therapeutic effects: the ability of psychic movement through the appearance or the reappearance of a function in the primal process; setting up limits and defenses of a narcissistic order; the improvement in the ability to make bonds. In spite of the difficulties in regrouping the subjects, the comparative results between the tests and the clinical setting generally confirmed our initial hypotheses.