Rejection of the Body in Adolescents

During adolescence the body’s sexual maturation sometimes takes place in the shadow of lofty narcissistic ideals. When dominated by such high expectations, adolescents may be disappointed with their own bodies’ changed appearance. A factor that may increase their hostility, indeed their rejection of their own bodies is discovering that their bodies are sexed, that they may be complementary to other bodies, and that they are destined to die. All of this leads some adolescents to perform violent manipulations of their own bodies in order to promote a change that would make it acceptable, or on the contrary punish it for its displeasing characteristics. Some pre-adolescents starve themselves to the limit of survival to celebrate the triumph of the mind; others make superficial cuts in their ‘new’ skin. In extreme cases, adolescents fall prey to the illusion that they can ‘kill’ their own bodies without them actually dying.