The Psychiatric Significance of Adolescent Turmoil

The Adolescent Peer Group Revisited

“…The tendency to misgeneralize is illustrated by Masterson ( 1968). He concluded his five-year controlled study of 16to 21-year-old outpatients with the critical observation that clinicians tended to move &dquo;from describing a specific clinical problem in a patient to generalizing about adolescence as a process of normal growth and development&dquo; (p. 1552).…”

The Life Cycle: Adolescence

“…He or she deals with developmental tasks, and adjusts successfully to society and the family (Douvon and Adelson, 1966). There may be mild forms of depression and anxiety (Masterson, 1968) and mild disagreements with authority figures (Offer, 1969) but other symptoms may be more serious and warrant professional attention (Blotcky, 1984). Symptom patterns tend to become differentiated over time.…”

Psychotherapy with Depressed Adolescents

“…Adolescent tunnod is something to be expected, but not something necessarily to be taken lightly, simply as a catch-all for the usual difficulties of the teens. Personality dirorders are real, and some of the turmoil can lead to the consolidation of character traits which at best can be cumbersome in future re- lationships, and at worst ominous forebodings of future pathology (Masterson 1968). The all-embracing category, Adjustment reaction of adolescence can be a repository for many serious neurotic and personality disturbances as well as affective disorders.…”