The Aged Adolescent

Adolescence and old age occur half a century apart, and seem to have nothing in common. In fact, says Psychoanalyst James Anthony of Washington University in St. Louis, the two stages are sometimes psychologically similar; present-day youngsters, far more often than their predecessors, show symptoms of aging long before they are out of their teens.

Among the symptoms very often shared by the aging adolescent and the aging adult is depression, Anthony says. "For both, the future looks black and unappealing," and "preoccupation with death and nothingness is frequent." Both youngsters and oldsters "can pass days in endlessly doing nothing, feeling that there is nothing to do." Besides, the two groups are often alike in being "intensely self-absorbed"; in fact, "the narcissism of old age and the narcissism of adolescence are two peaks in the development of human egotism." Hypochondria, too, can peak in adolescence as well as old age--which Anthony says "is not surprising because, in both, profound bodily alterations are taking place." Frequent changes in self-reliance also occur in old and in young; both alternate between battling for independence and leaning excessively on others.

Despite these behavioral likenesses in the age groups, the aging adolescent has an advantage over the aging adult: "Given a new perspective, a new ideal, a new cause, a new hero or a new theory," Anthony says, he can be "rejuvenated." First, though, he must somehow acquire something that characterized most adolescents of an earlier generation: the intense desire to grow up.

These days, Anthony reports, "there are a growing number [of young people] who do not view themselves as passengers in transit through a phase of development but as persons who have arrived at their destination and are not interested in going any further"--certainly not in the direction set by materialistic, achievement-oriented parents who expect youngsters to perform like adults. "Nothing is more aging than this constant pressure," Anthony believes. The problem, then, "is to get the parent off the adolescent's back" so he can have fun while he is young and choose his own goals when he is ready.

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