In this article the author argues that the effects of violence against children are often noticed only years later, especially during adolescence. Adolescence is an opportunity that allows to regain and treat the many injuries that have affected the psyche of the child. By means of the process of repetition-creation, the teenager can act out traces of old traumatic experiences which were not assimilated and try to treat them. To demonstrate this assumption, the author uses a clinical situation, extracted from two years of psychotherapeutic treatement. This example makes it possible to account for the phenomenon of recovery, acting out and the effects of psychotherapeutic treatment years afterwards the traumatic experience.
Violence, mental suffering; adolescence; traumatic experiences; process of repetition-creation; psychotherapy