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Chapter 4The MetamorphosisIndividuation of the Adolescent BrainDon M. Tucker and Lyda MollerIn the popular culture, parents and kids alike describe adolescence as a period offundamental stress and change. It is a time when hearts are broken, identities proveelusive, and it sometimes seems that the only chance for forward progress is whenthe frequent bouts of despondence give way to undeserved and dangerous feelingsof invincibility.In the scientific and medical literature, on the other hand, the modern trend isto downplay the psychological stress and chaos of adolescence. Some textbooks,in fact, emphasize that the normal course of adolescent development can be smoothand peaceful. The implication from many experts seems to be that the popularimpression of adolescent turmoil is an urban myth.Has the popular culture fabricated the turmoil of adolescence? Or have theacademics failed to observe what is obvious to everyone else? The evidence ofthe dramatic onset of psychopathology in adolescence is itself convincing evidencethat vulnerable young people will dysfunction during adolescence in waysthey did not in childhood. Strong and fortunate young people will cope well andthrive during the transformation. But they will be challenged and transformednonetheless.In this chapter, we outline a neuropsychological theory that views human adolescenceas a fundamental reorganization of the self. The larval self that formedwithin the relative security of childhood must be abandoned to forge a new iden-85