[Incidence of narcissism in adolescent thought processes]

Some normally intelligent children succeed in school until they reach adolescence and start to fail in academic achievements. These adolescents display some features which confirm the role of adolescent changes in the phenomenon. This article presents the theoretical considerations, the hypotheses, the methods and the findings of a study exploring the impact of the narcissistic challenges on thought processes and on the mechanism of sublimation. The study involves two groups of adolescents, succeeding and not succeeding in school who underwent a psychological assessment including the WAIS or WISC-R, the Rey Figure, the Rorschach and the TAT. The relevant test factors are presented. Findings show that narcissistic disorders brought about by adolescence has a different impact according to the previous quality of narcissism. It can have a traumatic impact enabling creativity, with varied effects on academic achievement, or a paralyzing impact on thought. It is thus confirmed that adolescence is revealing of the past.