"There is a psychological growth phase which involves separation, and that is one manifestation."
I wonder if this phase is actually about teen social structures and hierarchies as they've developed in Western countries. I'm reminded of something pg wrote in "Why Nerds Are Unpopular:" http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html :
I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I've read a lot of history, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy.
So I wonder if a large fraction of the age group want to reject their parents because of the way they've been raised and schooled.
You obviously didn't argue that this phase is universal, but I still find the idea interesting.
Historically most people had "adult" responsibilities much earlier than they do today. At 13 or 14 many people were done with formal schooling and either working at farming, learning a trade or "seeking their fortune." They didn't have time to sit around wondering about the meaning of it all.
I wonder if this phase is actually about teen social structures and hierarchies as they've developed in Western countries. I'm reminded of something pg wrote in "Why Nerds Are Unpopular:" http://paulgraham.com/nerds.html :
I'm suspicious of this theory that thirteen-year-old kids are intrinsically messed up. If it's physiological, it should be universal. Are Mongol nomads all nihilists at thirteen? I've read a lot of history, and I have not seen a single reference to this supposedly universal fact before the twentieth century. Teenage apprentices in the Renaissance seem to have been cheerful and eager. They got in fights and played tricks on one another of course (Michelangelo had his nose broken by a bully), but they weren't crazy.
So I wonder if a large fraction of the age group want to reject their parents because of the way they've been raised and schooled.
You obviously didn't argue that this phase is universal, but I still find the idea interesting.