Through the analysis of extreme phenomena such as those concerning hikikomori, young people who shut themselves away at home, or cutters, young people who cut their skin, psychoanalyst Laura Pigozzi questions the continuity that exists between them and the “lifeless” status of contemporary adolescents. The relationship they have with their own bodies, with school, with sex, and with the discovery of the world shows disturbing signs of closure, of “a halt in desire, a failure of vitality, a vortex of passivity.” More isolated and withdrawn than in the past, adolescents seem to lack the enthusiasm for the new, the Other, and the outside world that should define the transition to adulthood. What has happened? And, above all, what tools can be used to reopen their eyes to life and the future? Through the examination of clinical cases and an in-depth analysis of the relationship between school and family, the author notes how, in the transition from family to school, from parents to friends, something has gone wrong in a way that other eras have not experienced. Today more than yesterday, the main task of adolescents is proving difficult: creating bonds with their peers.