Abstract
The paper presents a theoretical reflection on clinical experience with adolescents attended in a Psychosocial Care Center for Children and Adolescents. They came to CAPSi because of self-mutilation, suicide attempts, escapes and impulsivity expressed through aggressiveness. These events are discussed with the psychoanalytical concepts of “acting out” and “passage to the act” in psychoanalysis and Le Breton’s anthropology. It was observed that the acts were presented in three situations: (1) when the young man appeared as the object of a deadly enjoyment; (2) before the fickleness of the Other; (3) when it was not possible to formulate otherwise the question of the meaning and value of self to the Other. It is argued that the acts and adolescence can be read as an appeal before the impasses experienced in finding new ways to insert in the social field.
Keywords:
adolescence; psychoanalysis; passage to the act; acting out; CAPSi