ANGUISHES IN CONTEMPORARY ADOLESCENCE-GENDER/GENDER IDENTITY

Continuing the previous Posts, puberty and adolescence mark sexual energy arousal and the first contact with moral ambiguities and ambivalences. It is also a period marked by an intellectual leap (logical skills), which will be developed alongside with eroticism, towards emotional growth.[1] Teenagers start developing their own concepts- different from the ones coming from their original family- and start having their first incursions into sexuality. They usually need to get some distance from nuclear family in order to have privacy and to experience new (and usually forbidden) things[2]. After all, being socially accepted is the very definition of adolescence. They are psychologically being pushed out, meaning their energy is totally directed towards social life, even if their interactions are virtual. Considering this overview and from a clinical point of view, gender and gender identity have specificities during adolescence. Sexual identity is in the process of development throughout adolescence, which means it is not consolidated yet. It is a period of experimentation. This is one of the reasons why gender identity might change later. In addition, socially belonging is crucial and gender identities have been established as an important place to belong to during adolescence. It doesn’t mean that not feeling in a gender “expected” to correspond to the sex assigned at birth is just in issue of a self-assertion. It means that experimenting and trying to understand where they fit existentially isn’t psychopathological. On the other hand, in clinical practice, homosexual orientation is less felt as a transitory condition, although it may also happen. Gender issues, in turn, are complex in a different way. They usually appear in childhood, in early years, and they are usually amidst a lot of anguish. Working on these individuals’ social inclusion is paramount. They deserve to enjoy a normal life. However, in what concerns psychotherapy, it is also essential to make room for contradictions and ambivalences. Deciding in which point of the spectrum one feels (fits) doesn’t necessarily solve existential conflicts, not to mention neurotic ones. Circumstances related to these cases are, indeed, hard- whether they come from the outside or the inside. Still, gender isn’t the only aspect (or conflict) in people’s lives. Again, the path towards emotional health (a sustainable one) lies in digging deeply into their unconscious contents and integrating hidden/dissociated sides of their Ego, so that they are able to broaden it. A broader Ego should entail every aspect in people’s internal worlds: the ones that make them ashamed or proud of themselves in order to integrate them into their personalities. As a result, we have an Ego that has the “permission” to enjoy (sexual) desire in a genuine way and that can handle their life choices. This is the path towards integrity and personal satisfaction. This is what defines an accountable and creative Ego.

To be continued in the next Post

[1]For more details see Dias , in Post 1- Sexual energy arousal- Self-sexual phase and Post 2- Puberty- Privacy/Intimacy. In: Essay 3- Sexual Identity development. In: www.ceciliapsicologa.org [2] For more details see Essay 1- Risk behaviors in adolescence. In: www.ceciliapsicologa.org