The Importance Of The Life Project In Adolescence (free Of Addictions)
The development of a life project is, from my point of view, the goal that defines an extremely complex concept in today’s society: the search for meaning.
The life project is a construction A vital construction that defines that our life has a direction and meaning. A frame of reference that allows us to act according to a defined structure. Thinking about the absence of a life project is like thinking about a ship adrift, without a compass.
We know from Victor Frankl that the search for meaning is inherent to human beings. Just as Freud maintained that the human being has the innate tendency towards the search for pleasure and according to Adler towards the search for power, Frankl takes human tendencies to a largely existential level by maintaining that the human being is mainly mobilized by the search for Sense.
This search enables the construction of a life project. Both the absence of a project and the deviation from the search for meaning takes us to the plane of existential emptiness
Supporting the idea of a tendency towards the search for meaning does not imply that the construction of a life project is easily achieved or even attempted. There are numerous ways of deviating from meaning, as well as dealing with existential emptiness. Ways, many of them, faster and simpler than facing the multiple external and internal difficulties that come with building a life project. Addictions are an example of these deviations
How is a life project built? Multiple factors intervene in its development: social, family and individual factors that we will expand on below.
The life project in adolescence
Does today’s society provide the necessary tools for adolescents and young people to build a project according to their desires and needs? Does the family promote hierarchies and clear limits (sufficiently firm and flexible according to the life stage of its members); open and explicit communication and ability to adapt to change?
If we delve into a brief sociological analysis of the here and now, we can clearly differentiate that the main tool offered consumer society is based on immediate satisfaction through external objects
This tool, and the absence of institutions that function as frames of reference, offer the adolescent, who is in the full development of his identity, a simple path to channel his desire. Their unsatisfied needs and their tendency to search for meaning are linked to the consumption of objects
The representative institutions of the social group and its involved actors function inadequately as the frame of reference, support and containment required by young people and adolescents in their search for meaning. On the contrary, the modern social system proposes a hidden meaninglessness that represents in young people the hard task of having to face a social void, for which they are not prepared. Without clear and concise frames of reference that provide the possibility of forming social and individual values, the adolescent requires greater support from his or her family.
The importance of family
As we noted previously, there are multiple factors identified in the construction of a life project. Today more than ever young people require a functional family nucleus that is installed as a frame of reference and helps them direct their search for meaning in a healthy and responsible way.
The family institution is today faced with the complex task of assisting its members in a constant tension between family values and social values. That is to say, the family nucleus must, on the one hand, help young people to build a life project in harmony and healthy adaptation with today’s society, at the same time it must denounce and highlight the contradictions and harmful elements of the latter. .
What role do addictions play?
When we refer to the absence of frames of reference we mean the absence of clear limits and values necessary for the healthy growth of the human being. The increasing consumption of drugs and alcohol as well as the increasingly early initiation of adolescents into the world of addictions, denounce the values transmitted by today’s society.
Addictions are largely a symptom of the consumer society Social symptom that prevents young people from materializing the search for meaning in a stable life project.
What prevails today, and with which health professionals must work hard, is with young people immersed in confusion and emptiness, with the always latent risk that they will find in external objects a quick and simple way to deal with with emotions that cannot be communicated.
It is in this context where the family nucleus takes on vital importance in the psychological-physical development of young people. A supportive family is one that enables a healthy communication space among its members, that is, enabling and encouraging the expression of emotions. Likewise, it is necessary for the family to establish clear and concise limits. The family must thus install a healthy framework that transmits values and meaning in a social context lacking them.
The interaction between individual personality traits, family environment and social context, defines the internal tools that the person develops
What happens when these tools are not enough or are dysfunctional? Young people and adolescents who did not develop basic capabilities such as the possibility of dealing with certain frustrations and unpleasant moods or who grew up in a hostile environment, where emotional expression is synonymous with weakness, present serious difficulties in building a life project and are They face the risk of developing pathologies, including addictions.
