Beyond psychiatry? About “difficult” adolescents in France

While the attempt to introduce the category of “conduct disorder” in France has met with strong resistance from youth professionals during the 2000s, the idea of “difficult” adolescents has gained in interest. It refers to psychoanalytical views on deviancy and to a critique of its pathologisation. The category depicts a marginal population of unruly youth, excluded from various institutions. This article presents the results of ethnographic fieldwork and explores this specific form in relation to the psychiatry of deviancy. It corresponds to the clinical apprehension of a public problem. This process provides collective concern for youth but limits the professionals’ ability to acknowledge underpinning social problems.