A Century Ago, Adolescents Weren’t Fully Human

A Century Ago, Adolescents Weren’t Fully Human

A parent could be forgiven for thinking that adolescents are primitive. They speak in monosyllables (“Food!”), if they speak at all. Their cognition can described as dim. (“Where are my shoes!? Oh, they’re on my feet.”) As a group, they seem to be not merely not-yet-mature-humans but not-yet-fully-humans-at-all — Homo habilis maybe, Neanderthals at best. Take heart in this impression. A century ago, when adolescent psychology first emerged as a …