Character Formation and Identity in Adolescence: Clinical and Developmental Issues

Randolph Lucente examines the development of character in the adolescent stage, the process of a second separation-individuation, and ways to treat the adolescent client. Character Formation and Identity in Adolescence draws on psychodynamic and psychoanalytic theory as well as neuropsychobiology to explain the adolescent transition to an adult sense of self. The clinical material features in-depth case vignettes that include clients on the borderline/narcissistic spectrum with arrests in separation-individuation substages and insecure early attachments. Therapeutic attunements that are affect-regulating, mentalizing, and mindsight-oriented are featured in each of these clinical vignettes and suggest outcomes that potentiate vertical as well as bilateral cerebral hemispheric integrations. The book contains a synthesis of the theories of psychoanalysis, psychodynamics, self psychology, neurobiology, and the concepts of intersubjectivity, attachment-differentiation, narcissism, and affect regulation.