A Historical Examination of the Perceived "Primitive" Adolescent

It's understandable for parents to sometimes view adolescents as somewhat primitive. Their communication can be limited, often reduced to single-word requests or absent altogether. Their thinking processes can appear slow, with obvious observations often overlooked. It's easy to get the impression that teenagers are not fully developed humans, perhaps resembling earlier stages of human evolution.

However, this perception is not new. When the study of adolescent psychology began a century ago, this was the prevailing view. Teenagers were literally considered to be not fully evolved, existing in a pre-human state.

The primary advocate for this idea was G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist and educator from Clark University. He had earned the first psychology doctorate in the United States. At that time, adolescence was not just poorly understood, but practically nonexistent as a distinct phase of life. Before the Industrial Age, young people transitioned directly from childhood into the workforce and reproduction. The economic landscape offered no space for semi-productive adolescents, let alone the emergence of a distinct teen culture.

While the concept of teenage angst existed before the formal study of adolescence, it was not widely recognized. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and Goethe's "The Sorrows of Young Werther" depicted the emotional turmoil of young people. The latter, part of the Sturm and Drang movement, highlighted the stress and impulsivity associated with youth.