Adolescent Vulnerability

Jane Heath teaches psychology at Ryerson Polytechnical University in
Toronto.

This book explores the susceptibility of adolescents “to
self-diminishing behaviours, to deterioration, and to corruption.”
Related themes are egocentricity and narcissism, which permeate and
distort the adolescent’s intellectual and affective life, with often
harmful consequences. Much discussion is focused on Piagetian theory
(specifically, formal operational thought); on the tendency of
adolescents to use concrete thought and/or affective logic rather than
the complex, abstract, and objective thought of which they are capable;
and on the narcissistic (in the classically Freudian sense) emotional
nature of adolescents.

Adolescent Vulnerability has a curiously pedantic quality. Statements
are often circuitously phrased and difficult to grasp on a first
reading. The research that is presented—on such topics as adolescent
egocentricity, narcissism, sexuality, and social and work
relationship—appears to function largely as a buttress for the
author’s own theories; contrary research is mentioned, but quickly
dismissed.

In addition to analyzing the frailties of the adolescent psyche,
Mitchell takes society to task for failing to provide its youth with
meaning, direction, and firm control. At times, this book—an
uncomfortable amalgam of Piagetian and psychodynamic theory held
together by the author’s strong views on adolescence and
society—seems more of a jeremiad than an objective analysis.