What are the psychic issues for reading in adolescence?

On the basis of discussions with adolescent readers and following the example of a great reader reported in literature, different facets of reading in adolescence are here explored. First of all, the concept of adolescence is specified. Then connections between unconscious psychic life and reading are considered, from the viewpoint of the fantasy life, but also from the viewpoint of the construction of identity. If reading can offer to the adolescent a transitional space between infancy and adulthood and between the internal and the external world, it can also be utilised for defensive ends, so that reading then allows the person to cut himself off from the world, both external and internal.
Read