A transversalidade da temática da puberdade em Freud e as interseções com a noção de desamparo

Abstract

The essay investigates the transversality of the theme of puberty in the work of Sigmund Freud and its intersections with the notion of helplessness, proposing a reading that articulates the development of psychoanalytic theory with the understanding of psychic constitution and the specific forms of suffering characteristic of adolescence. The study begins with the observation that, although Freud did not devote a systematic elaboration to adolescence, puberty appears recurrently at different moments of his theoretical production, assuming relevance for the understanding of the psychic constitution of individuals. The research seeks to reconstruct the trajectory of the theme of puberty in Freud’s work, considering that the conceptual changes surrounding sexuality reflect the importance that puberty acquires within his theoretical elaboration. Initially, it is understood as a physiological moment conducive to the outbreak of neuroses, linked to the increase in sexual excitation. With Freud’s theoretical revision, puberty comes to be conceived as the second stage of sexuality – a phase of re-signification of childhood experiences and of the shaping of adult sexuality. The essay proposes that the analysis of puberty in Freud allows for an understanding of the modes of psychic suffering experienced by young people today, based on its articulation with the notion of helplessness (Hilflosigkeit), which became central in Freud’s work from the 1920s onward. It also highlights how adolescence can be understood as a period of confrontation with this original helplessness, in which the human being is called upon to create new ways of dealing with otherness and with the losses constitutive of the human condition.