Adolescence has been recognised as a stage of human development since medieval times--long, long before the industrial revolution-...-and, as it is now, has long been seen as a phase which centers on the fusion of sexual and social maturity. Indeed, adolescence as a concept has as long a history as that of puberty, which is sometimes considered more concrete, and hence much easier to name and to recognize.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
One of the main tasks of adolescence is to achieve an identity--not necessarily a knowledge of who we are, but a clarification of ...the range of what we might become, a set of self-references by which we can make sense of our responses, and justify our decisions and goals.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Adolescents swing from euphoric self-confidence and a kind of narcissistic strength in which they feel invulnerable and even immor...tal, to despair, self-emptiness, self-deprecation. At the same time they seem to see an emerging self that is unique and wonderful, they suffer an intense envy which tears narcissism into shreds, and makes other people's qualities hit them like an attack of lasers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Adolescents, for all their self-involvement, are emerging from the self-centeredness of childhood. Their perception of other peopl...e has more depth. They are better equipped at appreciating others' reasons for action, or the basis of others' emotions. But this maturity functions in a piecemeal fashion. They show more understanding of their friends, but not of their teachers.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The limitless future of childhood shrinks to realistic proportions, to one of limited chances and goals; but, by the same token, t...he mastery of time and space and the conquest of helplessness afford a hitherto unknown promise of self- realization. This is the human condition of adolescence.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Adolescents may be, almost simultaneously, overconfident and riddled with fear. They are afraid of their overpowering feelings, of... losing control, of helplessness, of failure. Sometimes they act bold, to counteract their imperious yearnings to remain children. They are impulsive, impetuous, moody, disagreeable, overdemanding, underappreciative. If you don't understand them, remember, they don't understand themselves most of the time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Young people of high school age can actually feel themselves changing. Progress is almost tangible. It's exciting. It stimulates m...ore progress. Nevertheless, growth is not constant and smooth. Erik Erikson quotes an aphorism to describe the formless forming of it. "I ain't what I ought to be. I ain't what I'm going to be, but I'm not what I was."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Many children grow through adolescence with no ripples whatever and land smoothly and predictably in the adult world with both fee...t on the ground. Some who have stumbled and bumbled through childhood suddenly burst into bloom. Most shake, steady themselves, zigzag, fight, retreat, pick up, take new bearings, and finally find their own true balance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is an odd fact that what we now know of the mental and emotional life of infants surpasses what we comprehend about adolescents.... . . . That they do not confide in us is hardly surprising. They use wise discretion in disguising themselves with the caricatures we design for them. And unfortunately for us, as for them, too often adolescents retain the caricatured personalities they had merely meant to try on for size.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »