"This Place Is Not For Me". Place Identity And Personal Identity In Adolescence According To The Perspective Of Gestalt Psychology

The notion of adolescence has not always existed; it is a product of our culture that emerged in the late 19th century. Always a predominantly negative picture of this period of life is drawn but adolescence it’s almost a phase of existence in which personal limits are tested under the pressure of the desire to have ever new and exciting experiences and, in this way, those character and temperament traits typical of adults endowed with resourcefulness (typical of adult explorativeness) and the capacity for autonomous and responsible direction are defined and enhanced. This complex process requires the presence of a frame of reference, called field or life environment, and so the aim of the article is to outline the process of formation and consolidation of self-structures, as a function of the environment (field), placing it within the theoretical framework of Gestalt psychology and examining the changes of brain structure in the adolescent.