Abstract
Underachievement in a group of adolescent students is conceptualized as an attempt to manage anxiety stemming from an array of oedipal conflicts around success and competitionand preoedipal conficts around autonomy and dependency. Many students defend against oedipal and pre-oedipal anxieties by regressing to a safer passive-dependent position of avoiding competition and autonomous functioning in the academic arena. Narcissistic defenses also allow them to deny the oedipal fear of punishment through imagined omnipotence and invulnerability, and the pre-oedipal fear of loss of love through illusions of self-sufficiency. Both the defensive regression and narcissism then lead to further academic diffuculties for these students.
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She is a doctoral candidate at Smith College School for Social Work
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Bliss, S.B. Conflict, regression, and narcissistic defenses in the underachieving adolescent. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 9, 341–353 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757089
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00757089