TREATMENT OF OLDER ADOLESCENTS IN TRANSITIONAL PROGRAMS: RAPPROCHEMENT CRISIS REVISITED.

This paper draws largely upon the developmental theory of Margaret Mahler. It depicts a seemingly regressive revisitation of disturbed older male adolescents in transitional residential programs to unresolved elements of the original rapprochement crisis in the separation-individuation process. It describes how cycles of intense shadowing and darting behavior reemerge as the possibility of authentic independent functioning beckons. There is presentation of the way in which this revisitation, including splitting phenomena, is manifested in the residential treatment environment. Therapeutic implications are focused upon. A practice vignette illuminates the metapsychological thrust of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]