2022.11.07

DL_Adolescents today: permissiveness thought from the Telemachus complex (3/5)

The key to the "Telemachus-child" can be summed up in the syntagm "the abandoned child". It is about the child who, feeling abandoned, longs for the return of parents who support his/her desire. A desire that needs to be accompanied so that the spark that arises between parents and children can do its job, which is to illuminate the child's journey towards autonomy.



Parents, however, are often too absent to accompany them on this journey. Their excessive schedules, their worries about making ends meet or submitting to the mandate of savage capitalism gradually lead them to distance themselves from the role. The "abandoned son" usually receives - to compensate for paternal absences - material compensations that, however, do not manage to fulfil him or to numb his desire. 



The son Telemachus does not allow the spark to be extinguished, doubts emanate from him and he is ready to discover, to go out into the world, but he still needs a lighthouse in the midst of the darkness of the sea.  On page 124 of "The Telemachus complex", Recalcati summarises his thesis as follows: "(...) today's young generations are more like Telemachus (...). They demand that something should act as their father, that something should return from the sea, they demand a law that can restore a new order and a new horizon to the world.

Reyes González Anglada. 



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