Citation

Browning DL. Psychoanal. Q. 2011; 80(3): 555-593.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1002/j.2167-4086.2011.tb00097.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The process of reality testing can be thought of as a lifespan developmental line, where adolescence provides a critical developmental advance but not an endpoint. Erikson's concepts of fidelity and developmental actuality provide a frame of reference for considering this. Three means of reality testing are identified-contemplation, action, and conversation-where these modes of approach can be used separately or in concert to clarify the reality status of situations and phenomena. These methods of testing reality are illustrated within four arenas of adolescent functioning - thought, time, parental representations, and the Experience of the embodied self. © The Psychoanalytic Quarterly.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescence; Holocaust; Suicide terrorism; Reality testing; Action; Developmental line; Embodied self; Erikson; Female development; Fidelity; Parental representation; Self-representation