Pubertät – muss das sein?

Puberty – does it have to be? This is asked not only by the parents but also by the pubescent adolescents themselves. What is it that makes this often unloved and problematic phase of life so indispensable? The article provides an explanation for this, which is intended to draw attention to the enormous potential that lies in this phase of life. Focusing on this potential opens up new perspectives not only for parents and pubescent adolescents themselves but also for society as a whole. Understanding what makes this stage of life so essential and indispensable allows us to recognize what shapes and holds a community together. Then the conflicts inevitably associated with puberty can also be better mastered. Social learning, the “awakening” of emotional intelligence and the “social brain”, is the actual and most difficult process in the pubertal restructuring phase. Only in the community could and can Homo sapiens prevail against a dangerous environment. Cohesion, alliances, cooperation, all these are strategies that run like a red thread through the history of mankind. In puberty as the second birth, namely the “birth” of our emotional intelligence, lies the key to the development of the human being into a social being.