Organic Illness and Psychic Puberty: An Accumulation of Trauma

Abstract

When an adolescent faces serious organic illness, two traumatic events coincide and reinforce each other. The Oedipus fantasy and its murderous component are exacerbated. Starting psychotherapy in these circumstances is a challenge. Teens suffering from serious organic illness rarely request psychological help. They accumulate aggressive impulses that remain unspoken but are self-directed. We will use excerpts from cases to comment upon the problems and psychical processes experienced by such teens. We will show how expressing murder fantasies can be a motor in psychotherapy. Such expression not only supports therapy but also relieves the patient and contributes to a new psychosomatic equilibrium.