Wenzel E
Research Group, Youth and Health, Heidelberg, FRG.
Hygie. 1987 Sep;6(3):29-31.
Young people love to play theatre--in one way or another. They like to play with behaviours, costumes, words, communication patterns, etc.; they like to disguise themselves, to create certain spheres and scenes of drama and tragedy, excitement and extacy, satire and irony, morals and decadence. Due to the particular uncertainties of the adolescent passage, youth oscillates between taking life both, too seriously and easy. Searching for identity and integration, they tend to experiment with styles of behaviour and culturally defined patterns of lifestyles conductive to well-being. Sometimes, life is perceived as pure entertainment, and sometimes as pure drama. It's living theatre and theatre of life. On the one hand it is "acting out", on the other hand it is playing precisely defined roles. And, in-between, it is always the question: Who am I? They tend to slip into roles in order to check out whether they are willing to accept their implications with regard to the priorities they have set so far.