L'Adolescence au bord de la vie
Le Mal de grandir
Christine François
2000 - 87 min - DVC Pro - Couleur - France

In Professor Philippe Jeammet's department of psychiatry of the adolescent and young adult, young people are taken in for a few days, a few months or a few years.
Among these teenagers, some repeatedly try to commit suicide, others are "borderline" cases, delirious or depressed, many have emaciated bodies, frighteningly thin. Hospitalisation in a psychiatric unit is compulsory, a "safety net". To untangle the skein of parent-child relations that have become pathogenic, the teams of carers establish a break, a separation from the family.
The film gives an account of this work. It follows the rituals of the unit and the history of some patients at different stages of hospitalisation. It leaves the teenagers off camera, out of the picture, so that we hear what they say, beyond what the body shows.
Also available in 55 min. entitled "Le Mal de grandir".