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Individuation in Adolescence
Rosemary Gordon
Published online: 20 Dec 2013.

To cite this article: Rosemary Gordon (1997) Individuation in Adolescence, The San Francisco Jung
Institute Library Journal, 15:4, 33-38

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Individuation in Adolescence

Mara Sidoli and Gustav Bovensiepen, Editors. Incest Fanta-

sies and Self-Destructive Acts: Jungian and Post-Jungian
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Psychotherapy in Adolescence. New Brunswick and London,

Transaction Publishers, 1995.

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

Reviewed by Rosemary Gordon

Incest Fantasies and Self-Destructive Acts, edited by Nlara

Sidoli and Gustav Bovensiepen, is a most welcome and indeed
a most necessary and long awaited exposition of the Jungian
understanding and clinical handling of the psychopathology and
psychotherapy of adolescents. The editors have brought together
papers by experienced analytical psychologists, working in several
different countries. This gives the readers an overview of the
diversity of approaches which the relatively non -doctrinaire
character of analytical psychology facilitates and so helps to Inake
for a sensitive response to patients and to the subtlety of the
relationship as it evolves between analyst and analysand.
Sidoli and Bovensiepen's book is, as far as I know, the first
coherent contribution of the Jungian approach to adolescence.
For that reason, I believe that it is an important book. Much
of the material in the book has already been known, studied,
discussed and practiced, but it had not yet been gathered and
brought together in a really communicable form.
The presence in these papers of many Kleinian and object
relations concepts suggests that there are indeed some true
correspondences between the Kleinianand the Jungian nlodels
of the psyche. Both, for instance, recognize and pay much
attention to the importance and primacy of intra-personal as well
as inter-personal fantasies and conHicts. The fact that the con-
cepts and terms of both the Jungian and. the Kleinian schools
figure so strongly in this book is evidence that the authors and

The San Francisco JunlJ Institute Lihrm-y Journal, Vol. 15, No.4, 1997 33
the two editors, Sidoli and Bovensiepen, belong to the post-
Jungian group of analytical psychologists; they have evolved,
developed, learned from and been inspired by Michael Fordham.
His presence and influence is clearly evident in this book.
Yet the analysis and discussions of the major themes of this
book do of course use and explore also the ideas and theories that
are quite specific to analytical psychology. They include such
concepts as the drive towards \vholeness, the rebirth theme, the
recognition of death as an intrinsic part of life, and hence also
the experiences of loving and hating, of creating and destroying,
and of the potential pathologizing or healing of the rhythm of
progression and regression. All this gives a quite particular quality
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to the understanding and clinical work of the editors and the

authors of this book.

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

In the course of this review I want to discuss in more detail
some of the ideas presented in this book, particularly because the
use of ditferent terms by the practitioners in the various
psychodynamic schools tends to fool many, who then fail to
recognize the similarity of the underlying Inodels of the psychic
structures and functioning.
The study of adolescence seems to be quite particularly
powerful in driving home the fact that there are congruencies
between the theses of the different psychodynamic schools, as
well as lnany diversities. Indeed, the history of the emergence
of various observations, experiments, theories and clinical pro-
cedures appears in the pages in this book, as do comparisons and
explorations of the links and the discrepancies between psycho-
analysis and analytical psychology. This adds to the excitement
of the book and encourages reflection.
I believe that what gives the Jungian approach to the
psychodynamics of adolescence its very special character and
quality are the follO'wing basic concepts:
1. The thesis that libido is a general psychic energy, em-
powering both pre-oedipal as well as oedipal (sexual) images and
object relations.
2. Jung's exploration and reassessment, already in Symbols
of Transform.ation (Collected Works, Vol. 5. Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1952), of the meaning, function and symbolism
of incest. Sidoti refers to his writing about repression of libido
particularly in adolescence. He believed that its experience goes
beyond the genital-sexual; rather it contains the wish to regress

34 Rosemary Gordon reviews

to pre-oedipal experiences and situations. Sidoli suggests that
Tung regarded incest as an apt metaphor because incest prevents
psychological differentiation and keeps the young person bound
to the parents, thereby preventing individuation. "These collec-
tive unconscious incestuous patterns . . . are connected to the
survival of the species, but they are also deadly for the individual
because they oppose individuation." (Sidoli and Bovensiepen, p. 44)
3. The self is a metapsychological construct. It is well
defined in the glossary of this book. It is the totality of the
conscious and the unconscious areas and processes of the psyche
and is present from birth and probably from prebirth. Fordham
has described the self as "a dynamic system which integrates and
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deintegrates in rhythmic sequence." The self lies behind drives,

images and symbols that convey wholeness. Fordham has formu-

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

lated the concept of deintegration to name the process through
which the self differentiates parts of itself into forms and functions
which form the nuclei of consciousness.
4. The theory of individuation. This is closely linked to the
concept of the self and is quite particularly a key concept in
analytical psychology. It is described in the glossary as "the
process by which a person becomes a separate individual unity,
a psychological 'whole.' In so far as individuation embraces our
innermost and incomparable uniqueness, individuation means
'becoming one's own self.'" (Sidoti and Bovensiepen, pp. xx-xxi)
5. The individuation process as leading to an ever increasing
and ever widening intra-psychic and interpersonal bridging, a
bridging between the conscious and the unconscious; the per-
sonal, the individual and the collective; the concrete, the practical
and the abstract; analysis and synthesis; the actual, the rational,
and the imaginative, the meaningful and the spiritual.
6. And as Bovensiepen in his introduction to Part I reminds
us, that if the course of individuation is successful, the ego
becomes differentiated from the self. (p. 12)
Tung has given much thought to the theIne of birth, death
and rebirth. Indeed the ubiquity of the rebirth theme in the
religious, the mythological and in dreams convinced him that
rebi.rth is one of the most basic and powerful of the archetypal
complexes. In fact this rebirth theme gives a special quality and
Havor to the ideas and clinical work of analytical psychologists.
It is obviously particularly relevant and important in work with
adolescents, and is indeed one of the dominant themes in this

SidoJi and Bovensiepen, Eds., buest Fatltasies (wd Self-Destructive Acts 35

book. The formulations, suggestions and theses of many of the
authors are developments of Jung's themes of birth, death and
rebirth. These then1es mark the authors' thinking, their work
\vith, and their experience of their adolescent patients.
Adolescence is no\\! recognized as a developmental phase
that includes the possibility of regression, providing, as it were,
a second chance to integrate early pre-oedipal infantile drives,
fantasies, conflicts and confusions that had failed to be resolved
earlier on. But this means that child psychotherapists and trained
baby observers are particularly well qualified to \\lork with, to
unravel, to understand and to throw light on adolescence and
its upheavals.
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Certainly this book is rich in its excellent and well described

case studies. The observations, intuitive perceptions, understand-

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

ing and ideas are interesting and challenging. The thesis that the
early infant-mother relationship leaves a particularly powerful
mark on the adolescent individual is thought-provoking. Was the
mother able to hold her baby? Was she sensuously and emotion-
ally available? Was she capable of empathy? Was she experienced
as reliable? vVas she trust\vorthy? All this will lay the foundation
for the developlnent of a personality and of his or her adoles-
cence. These early mother-infant experiences \vill affect his or her
capacity to trust, to care, to love, to empathize, and to be
available to intimacy in one or more relationships, without
however losing himself or herself or being seduced into a
fusionary state .u1d so sacrificing his or her own identity.
There is much discussion of the pain of sensing one's
fragility, impotence, lack of control and a growing awareness of
one's mortality. This awareness can create intense feelings of
shame. In addition, the growing awareness and consciousness of
death and mortality seems to underlie the adolescent's struggle
with tilne and with his or her reluctance to develop a sense of
time.
This idea is well exposed and discussed quite early on by
both Sidoli and Bovensiepen in Section One, Chapter T\vo.
There is also much discussion of the adolescent's tendency to
rush into activity and thus to act out, as a defense against
passivity, depression, isolation and separation, as well as ambiva-
lence in relation to the parents-fear and wish to separate from
them, or apprehension that they might swallow one up again.
Adolescents tend to attack and mercilessly manipulate the frame,

36 Rosemary Gordon re\iews

any frame, and certainly the frame of therapy. It is the function
of the therapist to hold and to keep the fran1e together and if
necessary to rebuild it. The therapist needs to be very skillful,
not easily taken for a ride-in fact to be, if possible, a step or
two ahead of his or her young patient.
The capacity to symbolize, a cnlCial achievement in the
process of maturation, depends, as the authors of this book show,
on the therapist being experienced by his adolescent patients as
reliable, trustworthy and strong enough to hold and to contain
them and the therapy against their tricks and manipulations. The
therapist must be able also to disentangle his own feelings,
thoughts and identity from the various projections with which
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they, the patients, try to intrude into him; but also to have
empathy, and genuine concern, and furthermore to be available

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

to imaginative playfulness. Altogether this book is pern1eated
with many such perceptive, useful, and practical comments and
suggestions about the clinical-therapeutic handling of adoles-
cents.
One of the most iinportant and crucial subjects in this book
is the counter-transference. Although this particular term was not
yet current, lung was carlyon very aware of and affected by the
therapist-analyst's reactions to his patient, by the efTcct and
impact on the doctor of the patient's conscious and above all
unconscious experiences and processes and thus the doctor's
actual involvement and participation in the analytical \\fork. In
fact lung often claimed that a good analysis will lead to the
growth, transformation, and healing not only of the patient but
also of the therapist.
By now our understanding of the counter-transterence has
become more sophisticated and more subtle than in lung's time.
This is made clear in the many descriptions and examples in this
book. The therapist's o\vn emotional reactions can serve as a
diagnostic tool and help increase insight into what is going on
in the patient. Here Fordham's work and formulations-as well
as those of Klein, Bion, and Meltzer-have contributed enor-
n10llsly. The impact of the descriptions by SaIne of the authors
of their own reactions to their adolescent patients is vcry pow-
erful. They convey how much pain and invasion into their own
psyche must be borne and tolerated by present day analysts,
particularly if they work with adolescents. The analysts seem to
be so much less protected and defended compared to colleagues

Sidoli and Rovensiepen, Eds., Incest Fantasies and Se/f-Destrllcul'e Acts 37

in earlier times, and especially compared to those who work only
with ego structures and whose theories do not involve the
concept of the self or of archetypal dynamics, or those who
believe that they should confine themselves to functioning only
in tefIns of a neutral reflective screen. Certainly this book conveys
the complexity, fascination, challenge, and excitement, but also
the pain, of all \\,ho engage in Jungjan analytic work, particularly
if their work is with adolescents.
I do however regret that the editors have missed the op-
portunity to end the book with a substantial and weighty over-
view, in which they might have pulled together and summarized
the main strands of this really important work. In it, both theory
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and excellent case discussions interweave in a po\verful and

impressive way. The authors enlighten us about adolescence.

© C. G. Institute of San Francisco

They otTer much new thinking about incest, incest fantasies, and
incestuous acting out, which can often lead to self-destructive
acts. Because this is a book that draws on all psychodynamic
schools-the different Jungian approaches and the various trends
and developments in psychoanalysis-it is likely to appeal and be
meaningful to the many and ever growing number of different
specialists in the helping professions.
Finally, it is a lneaningful coincidence, that is a true
synchronicity, that this book, which carries fonvard many of the
ideas and formulations of Michael Fordham, should be ready for
review so shortly after his death.

38 Rosemary Gordon reviews Sidoli and Bovensiepen, Eds., Incest Farltasies