[Adolescence and family therapy]

The authors have tried to describe the different levels of understanding or "rationales" of the adolescence crisis: individual rationale of the adolescent going through a period of psychic disruption, individual rationale of the parents who must face the "parental crisis", and rationale of the family system whose relational organization must be changed. In adolescents, symptoms often occur as a result of the confrontation of these different, contradictory rationales. The point at issue is to find out whether the main obstacles to change are at the individual level or in the family system. The authors give some guidelines for selecting the most appropriate therapy and for determining the value of familial therapy in adolescence.