Emerging Adults, Identity Development, and Suicidality: Implications for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

ABSTRACTEmerging adulthood (approximately ages eighteen to twenty-nine) has been identified as the transitional age between adolescence and young adulthood. People in this phase of life face specific issues and pressures in developing and consolidating various aspects of identity. The process of coming to experience oneself as a coherent, whole person, and learning about one’s own attributes, capacities, and potential for growth can be fraught and vulnerable to developmental disruption. Difficulties with identity development and consolidation can lead to experiences of disconnection, aloneness, despair, and harsh self-attack that heighten vulnerability to suicide. The psychotherapeutic relationship can help the patient achieve a degree of self-recognition that might not otherwise have been possible, decreasing vulnerability to suicidal despair and opening up the potential for ongoing development and growth. Together, patient and therapist have the opportunity to more fully recognize aspects of the emergin...