Perhaps you are acquainted with the Control Matery Theory that is the subject matter used at this form to organize an understanding of clinical subjects. So it might help if you could say more about any control-mastery forumulations you understand that are applicable to adolescence in general or to rebelllion in general or about where you find control-mastery theory hard to apply to some kinds of interpersonal problems. In theory, theory and practice fit together; in practice, theory and practice can sometimes be a challenge to fit together. I would mention first that adolescence is a period when one can expect to see resurrected all those unfinished developmental derailments that began much earlier in the patient's life, from childhood and even infancy. A lot of adolescent behaviors that are problematic, such as rebellion, therefore represent enactments of the experiences from very early in life that were full of turbulent emotions not yet integrated into one's consciousness and adaptive personality functioning. Accordingly and speaking in general--i.e., without necessarily presuming that anything I write here has relevance to your own case study (since I am opposed to assessments from a distance)--what many adolescents plan to convey in rebellious activities is an unconscious communication of their inner struggles to find equanimity and the immense difficulty of this task for them. The (countertransference) feelings an adult caregiver experiences in reaction to another's rebellion, no matter age of the rebellious person, can often (but not always) be usefully regarded as the smae feelings the rebellious person has that he or she is not aware of having. The immense clinical challenge is to help the rebellious patient integrate both the feelings and thoughts one is openly expressing in rebellious behavior and the feelings and thoughts that the reactive caregiver experiences. The wider the divergence between the feelings/thoughts of the caregiver and the feelings/thoughts of the person with an unconscious plan to reach out for help by means of rebellious behaivor, the greater the challenge, the more likely there will be fits and starts, and the more emotioanl and intellectual investmet will be required of all parties.
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