Teen and Torn: Adolescents Negotiating Cultural Dissonance

ABSTRACT Teenage has become a distinct, much talked about, and very important socio-economic group in American society since mid-twentieth century. While the origins of this categorization are embedded in capitalist market forces, the group dynamics have very widespread consequences, and need to be understood in cultural and psychological terms. This article focuses particularly on the pressures and stresses experienced by teenagers who are immigrant minorities from very different cultural backgrounds. A framework of threatened continuity of being, rather than one of separation-individuation, is proposed to explain the impact of cultural dissonance on these adolescents as they struggle to adapt, fit in and belong. Clinical strategies in approaching psychotherapeutic work with these teenagers are also explored.