Adolescence: a Reflection from Humanistic Psychology

Opinion

Adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescere, which means to grow, and is a stage of life characterized by the bio-psycho-socio-cultural and spiritual growth of the person; a complex process of anatomical-physiological development, in which one stops being a girl or a boy…, but cannot yet be considered an adult.

The relationship of the adolescent with his or her environment and family and education acquires certain particularities and specificities, mediated by his or her youthful self in the process of psychosocial maturation.

The adolescent receives education in the school environment, where he or she nourishes the intellect and the spirit, develops his or her personality in a multifaceted and harmonious way and prepares for adult life with the weapons given to him or her by comprehensive general culture… But also at home, where he or she internalizes and incorporates into his or her coping style the example, positive or not, that Opinion comes from the parents and other members of the family nucleus, where he or she carries out his or her daily activities.

Establishing this bond is not easy, but neither is it difficult or impossible. However, if the adolescent perceives love in the relationship with the other and his inviolable human dignity is respected, both by family members and teachers, he learns to love and respect one another.

On the other hand, parents and teachers, through living example, not through decrees, laws or incomprehensible orders, teach their son or disciple to fulfill his elementary duties in the family and school environment and to claim his rights as a social being who lives in a community.

Love, acceptance and respect are the only keys that allow the adult to open the doors of the psychological and spiritual life of an adolescent. Let us not forget that to educate is, according to Father Felix Varela, «to show alternatives, paths or options, so that the student decides which ones to choose» Or «to caress the intellect and spirit of man, and at the same time to goad him with an infinity of questions, which the disciple must answer throughout his life»; synthesis of the current pedagogical thinking of Félix Varela, José de la Luz y Caballero and José Martí, three distinguished Cuban educators of all time.