[Symbolic process in intellectual activities of so-called psychotic adolescents]

Based on his experience as psychopedagogue in a special education facility for adolescents with psychopathological disturbances, the author develops the idea that the learning difficulties cannot be reduced to intellectual deficits due to constitutional causes or traumatic experiences. The observation and analysis of the difficulties suggest that symbolization processes are deeply involved. This research is based on the assumption that symbolization processes of so-called psychotic adolescents can be assessed through various psychological techniques: the Borel-Maisonny language test, tests derived from those of Meljac on the knowledge and spontaneous use of numbers, and the EDEI (Differential scales of intellectual efficiency) by Perron-Borelli. Symbolization is defined in reference to theoretical approaches along three differentiated modes: the long option, the confused option and the short option. Different modalities of symbolization, the conceptual, the referential and the confused, are described and analyzed throughout the performances of the subjects, utilizing a differential and clinical method.