Exogamous path, puberty and adolescence

Exogamy is spoken of in adolescence, when the object of love is outside the family. This path will allow the individual to access the adult world .

Exogamy, puberty and adolescence: what they are and how to recognize them

The latent – between approximately six and ten years of age – begins to disinvest the parental figures since the link with them is no longer the same. The child diverts attention from the parental figures exclusively to turn to his peers as collaborators in the game .

Before, parents were absolutely idealized, playmates were toys, which has to do with the child’s egocentricity. But now there is a cognitive and affective opening. That libidinal load that parents had changes and they will be compared with teachers, for example.

Puberty ends the latency period, which means the appearance of beautiful women. This process is within the adolescent period .  The WHO says that you can talk about adolescence from the age of ten, but you have to take into account the particularity of each being, since it does not have fixed time limits.

The population mean of adolescence could be around twelve years of age, always taking into account the contextual variables. Some setbacks in this stage have to do with emotional processes, which also adds to the fact that adolescents suffer more solitary conflicts in development.

Puberty has to do with menstruation in women and the first ejaculation in men, but there are also psychic changes. In relation to the psychological Aberasturi, A. and Knobel, M. described approximately ten duels, although the most important are two, namely:

Mourning for the lost infant body

The boy stops perceiving his body as something known . That family body with which he felt more or less comfortable becomes very different, he has other possibilities to discover and he will have to learn to live with that body.

This duel is questioned since if that body is so different and has the capacity to give it new possibilities so valued socially and to explore sexuality in another way, it would not be a duel. In this sense, there is a questioning of the anguish of the changes. By virtue of adolescent worship, there is talk of slowing down society.

Grief for childhood parents:

In latency the parents are relatively real. Now the adolescent wants to differentiate, discriminate and one way is through constant questioning .

From the psychic point of view there is the extremely intense re-edition of the Oedipus Complex . The same incestuous desires appear as at five-six years but with the difference that now Oedipus can be consummated.

At the unconscious level , a movement is generated in which the adolescent manages to separate from these parental figures because they promote incestuous desires. Hence the disputes between parents and children. But they are expected to leave exogamous desires behind and turn towards an exogamous object .

Although the Oedipus sometimes is not resolved, it is necessary to try to solve it, because an unresolved Oedipus could generate a bad development of the superego and in turn a stagnation in one of the stages of psychosexual development . The characteristics of the pre-genital phases are not completely abandoned, but the greatest pleasure occurs in the genitals. The adolescent stops being autoerotic and begins to have a total love object, although sometimes there is autoeroticism . There are masturbatory behaviors although sexuality is shared with another.

End of Oedipus and individualization in adolescents

In this flight from the Oedipus Complex and the possibility of incest, the adolescent looks for an exogamous love object, the libidinal burdens are removed from the parents and a group of equals is sought; the parents are no longer going to be the identifying models.

It is like a second individuation , the first is the separation from the mother when it is a baby. The adolescent has to see parents as adults in order to differentiate themselves from them.

P ara parents is not indifferent to the situation of their children , they are in a situation of loss of a child, promoting a duel. In addition, for parents, the fact that the adolescent has a whole life ahead of him is the confirmation that time has passed. In turn, they are also mobilized regarding their own Oedipus.

Changes in puberty

During puberty, teenagers struggle to be accepted and to try to fit in with their peers. As their bodies begin to change, they may feel different and be self-conscious about these fear-creating changes.

Physical changes

When women enter puberty, their main concern is generally looking good and losing weight, while they can also be seen focused on building their muscles, showing off beautiful legs and firm buttocks. They are changing, they are no longer the girls they were.

At puberty the body begins to develop in a different way.

In women: increases their muscles; your breasts begin to increase in size due to the development of breast tissue; menstrual periods start; They rapidly increase in stature and there is an increase in hair on the legs, armpits and pubis.

In men: increased facial hair, legs, arms and pubis; increased sweat production; increased muscle and strength; accelerated growth (increased height); initiation of penile erection and enlargement of testicles and penis.

Psychological changes

The moods of a teenager going through puberty can fluctuate between excitement, anger, anxiety and depression. At this stage, due to the greater concern that young people live with regarding their body image, it often leads to a reduction in self-esteem .

Low self-esteem in adolescence can be a serious problem if it is not resolved properly. Adolescents with low self-esteem are more likely to be victims of bullying or any other type of bullying , a serious problem that can have drastic consequences if it is not treated in time.

One of the emotions that begins to bloom quickly at puberty is love . Although it occurs more in women than in men, falling in love in adolescence is practically inevitable. For some people “adolescent love” is not of great importance, but it has been shown to be an extremely important part of the development of adolescents, and an experience that will open the doors to new emotions and feelings still unknown to them.

Sexual arousal

As their hormones change, they begin to see the opposite sex in a different light and begin to experience sexual arousal. At this stage, it is normal for adolescents to begin to participate in romantic relationships and to experience physical behaviors, such as kissing, touching, and even beginning to have sexual encounters. At the same time, adolescents are also more affected by gender roles and may develop a preference for more gender-specific activities.

Hormones at Puberty

Hormones are chemicals in the body secreted by specialized cells that are located in the endocrine glands. They affect metabolism, growth, development, reproduction, and other reactions in the body.

The onset of puberty is primarily triggered in the brain. This causes hormones to begin to flow through the bodies of young people.

At puberty, the hormonal reaction is triggered when the hypothalamus releases a hormone called gonadotropin (a hormone that acts on the sex glands) and this in turn connects with the pituitary gland (control gland) that produces the release of luteinizing hormone. and follicle stimulating hormone.  These hormones start the process of sexual development and work differently for each sex.

Luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone are responsible for the production of testosterone in men. Testosterone is the male sex hormone, which regulates fertility, muscle mass, fat distribution, and red blood cell production.

In women, luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone act differently than in men. These hormones regulate the function of the ovaries, which produce the female sex hormones: estrogen and progesterone. Female hormones are responsible for the development of breasts in women and the more curvy body shape that women have compared to men.