CABREIRA, J. C.; PONTES, M. L. S.; TACHIBANA, M.; AIELLO-VAISBERG, T. M. J. “Misunderstanding, emptiness, and childish opposition”: the collective imaginary of adolescents about adolescence in the contemporary world. Proceedings and Abstracts of the First Research Conference on Psychoanalysis and Phenomenology, Campinas: Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, 2007.
Abstract: Considering the various social issues associated with adolescence, which may be linked to emotional suffering experienced during this stage of life, we decided to investigate the collective imaginary of adolescents regarding adolescence. Thus, we contacted eighth-grade students and asked them to individually create the Drawing-and-Story Procedure based on the theme “an adolescent today”. From the analysis of the fourteen drawing-stories produced, as well as the psychoanalytic narrative written about the lived encounter, we identified three non-conscious psychological fields — “incomprehension and loneliness”, “existential emptiness”, and “opposition” — which reveal the emotional distress experienced by contemporary adolescents and provide a basis for promoting reflections on preventive and psychoprophylactic measures.