[Is there an end to adolescence?--Observations from the ethnopsychoanalytic viewpoint]

Being an adult today does not mean anymore to have secure knowledge and routine at one's disposal, but rather being able to endure anxiety and uncertainty in culture. In the course of the process of civilization youth has more and more become the model and embodiment of a dynamic, ever-changing culture. As a consequence of abolishing initiation rituals, which originally determined the transition to adulthood, adolescents today must develop their own strategies in order to relate chaos and order to each other. The antagonism between family and culture plays a central role here: The individual must be able to personify two aggregate states as it were, that is being firm in the family and being fluid in culture. Today adolescence only ends inside the family when the individual takes on a parent role, but in the cultural area we should remain adolescents all of our lives, in order to muster the creativity necessary for a changing culture.