Abstract
This chapter presents a short story written by a 15-year old boy as a startling response to a regular class assignment. Its originality and the expressive emotional and experiential power of the writing make it an exceptional text, worthy of close analysis. The story, based on The Odyssey, follows the life of Cyclops Polyphemus*-from his childhood, through the recognition of the mature body and especially the "eye," the cannibalistic scene at the cave, and the blindness. By choosing a story so distant from human reality and using the mythological giant-monster figure protagonist as a model for identification, the adolescent author succeeds in evoking the world of adolescent feelings and the power of its sexual fantasies, anxieties, desires, and frustrations. The analysis of the story is based on the following concepts: psychological birth, masturbation fantasy, primal scene, and castration fear. Through the analysis, the process of adolescence as the psychological birth of the sexual body is unfolded.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3-17 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Adolescent Psychiatry (United States) |
| Volume | 30 |
| State | Published - 1 Dec 2008 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
- Psychiatry and Mental health
