Signifiants identitaires et défaillance du contrat narcissique primaire chez les adolescents non entendant : une étude de trois cas

Abstract

The study is based on observations of children from the ESEDA school who, by the time they reach adolescence, are in constant conflict with their parents. This is because, within the family, these teenagers show signs of aggression, isolate themselves and, in some cases, run away from home to join Deaf communities. The study poses the problem of the failure of the narcissistic contract in the light of identity signifiers in non-hearing adolescents. The theory of the narcissistic contract developed by Kaës (2009) enables us to understand that there is a contract based on unconscious alliances between the subject and the group, which must guarantee a place for each subject to ensure his or her own existence in the group and the continuity of that same group. Kaës (2009) insists that any failure in this contract calls into question the stakes of the narcissistic contract, and drives the subject to seek a place in a secondary group. The research question is how do identity signifies affect the failure of the narcissistic contract in these adolescents. Based on this question, we hypothesized that the symbolization of the identity object and the lack of investment in parental narcissism would help us to understand how identity signifiers affect the failure of the narcissistic contract. Using the clinical method, the interview guide and family drawing test (Corman, 1965) were used to collect data from three children and their parents at the ESEDA School for the hearing impaired. The results of the interviews with the parents and adolescents, analyzed using the thematic analysis for the interviews and the interpretation of the family drawing by (Corman, 1965), demonstrate the existence of a variety of problems (trauma of the child's deafness; break-up of the home, etc.).With regard to drawing in adolescents, we observe emotional deficiencies, poor exchanges with the family unit, an absence of the subject himself in the family dynamic schematized in the drawing, devaluation of self, difficulty in taking personal initiative due to parental over protection. In other words, the failure of the narcissistic contract is at the root of the disinvestment of the family by the deaf adolescent, who invests himself in the Deaf Community, where he feels recognized and valued.