Identification and its vicissitudes as observed in adolescence

The author emphasizes two main types of identification processes: primary or narcissistic identification prevailing in self-selfobject relationships, and implying the use of idealizing libido, before the differentiation self-selfobject is achieved; secondary identification occurring at a later developmental phase, when there is a clearcut differentiation between self and object. Differing from Kohut's point of view on identity, she feels that what is described by self psychology as the feeling of 'cohesion, continuity in time and the affective colouring of the self' corresponds to the sense of identity. Adolescence is viewed, not only as a chronological phase, but primarily as a state of mind, with specific characteristics, resulting from the transformations of the self, culminating in the establishment of the sense of identity. When there is a traumatic disillusionment in the idealized self-object during early development, this leads to a fixed adolescent state of mind, independent of chronological age, which can be more clearly observed in the analysis of adult patients with self pathology. A clinical case of an adult patient illustrates the author's point and shows that the processes of idealization, de-idealization and transmuting internalizations, occurring both in adolescence and during the analytic treatment, are typical of this mental state.