Youth: Fidelity and Diversity

A discussion of the emergence of fidelity in youth as the result of the interplay between the individual & the soc forces of the community, re identity development. Adolescent development consists of a set of identification processes. Importance is given to the individual life through identification with signif persons & with ideological forces, & the relationship to the community & ongoing history. The life history intersects with history- individuals' identities are confirmed & the life style of societies is regenerated. Adolescent psychopathology is seen as a manifestation of the denial of 'the historical flux of time, ie, the adolescent retests parental premises in the present before placing trust in the future. Adolescent gang membership indicates a dismissal of the genital function of procreation while acknowledging authority only through the joining syndrome, & hence repudiating the rest of the soc world. G. Jacobs.