This article originates from a study carried out at the Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Pesquisa e Intercâmbio sobre a Infância e Adolescência Contemporâneas (NIPIAC), which is part of the Post-Graduate Program in Psychology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The study set out to investigate reflection groups as a kind of clinical intervention with adolescents, based on psychoanalytical assumptions. We sustain that reflection groups provide broader possibilities for psychoanalytical listening involving adolescents and can take place more directly within the institutional or social contexts in which the adolescents are already involved (schools, youth institutions, social projects, etc.). We highlight some concepts and assumptions from psychoanalysis which serve as the basis for our clinical and theoretical work. We then present a study developed with a group of adolescents during the first half of 2006 at a public school in Duque de Caxias, a town in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
treatment for adolescents; expanded psychoanalysis; reflection groups