The Adolescent, the Family, and the Group: Boundary Considerations

In this chapter, the authors discuss the boundary concepts which have given orientation to the research treatment programme for disturbed adolescents and their families. Boundaries are also constructs which speak of the relationships between parts of a system and thus provide an essential framework for conceptualization of differential aspects of psychological processes within the individual or family or group. The authors consider how characteristics of self boundaries in the adolescent relate to the role boundaries he establishes in new interpersonal and group situations. They explore and modify the internalizations of childhood experience which are manifested in disturbance in the development of relative autonomy in the adolescent's ego with impairment in his individuation. The authors explicate and modify the actuality of current family dynamics which are interfering with adolescent individuation and separation. Under framework circumstances abrupt separation from the intergroup situation occurs or there is breakdown of boundaries between the two systems with accompanying chaos.