Adolescence is a critical period in the lives of a great many individuals; the same is true of puberty. During these periods certain physiological changes are occurring, which in some instances become so pronounced as to border on the pathological, and which effect a marked change in the individual's general conduct. Thus, a boy or girl of good family and good habits may more or less suddenly become a thief, obscene, a vagabond, or may show symptoms related to insanity. While these conduct disorders may in some cases be due to mental conflicts, in others they are due solely to disturbances associated with the adolescent or pubertal period of life. The real cause of the individuals' trouble is not always arrived at, with the result that many are punished physically or sent to a correctional institution. This treatment usually results in the making of confirmed criminals, or otherwise abnormal persons. The proper treatment consists in ferreting out the mental complex, if it 'exists, or in intelligent counsel, best given by a psychologist or physician acquainted with the instabilities of puberty and adolescence.

If childhood is rich in fantasy likewise is adolescence. It is at the latter time that the youthful person becomes first filled with ideas of his or her importance, and surveys the world as a field that will be conquered easily. While the fancies that may occupy the mind of an adolescent are as many as the sands on the shore, there are two which are of most importance. These are concerned with what we will call the hunger for love and the hunger for work.

It is generally believed that the attachments formed during adolescence are not enduring; calf love or puppy love is the term employed for the love experienced at this period. In not a few instances, however, the attachments formed endure, and happy marriages result. It is not our intention to discuss this phase of the matter, but since it is in adolescence that the individual breaks away quite forcibly from self-love and love of the family entirely, and seeks the love of the opposite sex, to point out a few questions with which the person should occupy his or her mind once love has centred upon a certain individual.

The adolescent is romantic. Reveries dealing with the love life occupy a considerable portion of the daily thoughts. To a certain degree these may not be harmful, but they are often carried so far that they do have a detrimental effect upon the dreamer's whole life. The trouble is that the excessive dreamer of romance is apt to create an ideal that cannot be found in this world of humans. Such an ideal may be built around the characters in love stories and similar tales; for this and other good reasons these stories are inadvisable for frequent use. At any rate, the result of the romancing is that an ideal is created by the fancy, which ideal may remain in the conscious mind or be transferred to the unconscious mind. The dreamer may, later in life, meet some one who, superficially maybe, resembles the person of the day-dreams; this meeting may lead to marriage. The marriage is likely to be unhappy, however.. This is because no human can come up to the qualities of the dream-lover, and hence, when the dreamer finds that the mate has human defects, he or she feels cheated, deceived, and so is discontented. It may happen, also, that the dreamer never marries; he or she never finds the ideal of the dreams, and since no one outside of the ideal will do true love never enters. Much could be said on the influence of romantic day-dreams on the selection of a mate; it is a very important subject and one that has received little attention. The point for the reader to grasp is that if we create ideals then let them be modelled after what is possible for human beings, not story book or fantasy characters. Perfection will not be found; what should be sought for is a maximum of desirable traits. Again, if one loves let him or her cogitate if it is because the loved one resembles the ideal of the dreams, or because of true worth and other desirable traits. If it is solely because of a resemblance to the ideal, especially a physical resemblance, marriage is likely to prove more or less of a disappointment.

As a person may fall in love because the loved person resembles the ideal of day-dreams, so also may one love some one because of the latter's resemblance to the lover's mother or father. It is a colloquialism that a boy's first sweetheart is his mother, and a girl's her father. And often because the traits of the mother or father become unduly impressed in the child's mind, the child, as an adult, has a tendency to fall in love with some one who reminds him or her of the parent, due to the fact that the mind forgets nothing and is attracted to whatever has caused pleasure and is repelled by whatever has caused pain. Thus, a boy who has had his mother's image much impressed upon him, as is often the case in the sons of widows, divorced parents who do not remarry, only children, may meet a girl who possesses one or more facial or other physical characteristics of his mother; he is attracted to this person, and may fall in love with her. He believes that he loves the girl because of her own traits, or for no reason particularly. The real reason is because the girl physically resembles his mother, from whom he has had every care; he is really in love with his mother. It happens also that a boy may love a girl because she is tender, protective, motherly so to speak; she takes the place of his mother. The girl, on the other hand, has a tendency to fall in love with some one who reminds her, unconsciously, of her father. Many persons who do not know why they married such and such a one have here the reason.

Doubtless few of us would do better than to marry some one as good as our parents, yet we would not think of marrying the parents. If one marries simply because of the loved one's resemblance to the parent all sorts of complications may arise. For one thing, the loved one is not loved for his or her own traits, but because of the few traits that are common to the loved one and the lover's parent. Once love has had time to clear its eyes, the traits unnoticed before will appear; if these are disagreeable traits, quarrels and dissatisfaction will arise. Again, if a man is to progress he can hardly do so and expect his wife to be his mother also; such a desire indicates a reluctance to leaving the infantile mentality, not a desire for a helpmate of equal mental development as the lover. The man should be the leader; if he lacks authority, the ability to make forceful decisions when necessary, which is likely if he acts toward his wife as he did toward his mother, he can hardly be one, or maintain his wife's respect. Similarly, a girl who marries a person merely because this person resembles her father, though she may not be consciously aware that this is the true reason, may expect to find marriage a disappointment. She, too, will note traits in her husband which she did not notice before; she may find so many undesirable traits as to wonder what could have possessed her to marry the one she did marry. Self-analysis, to determine, if possible, whether or not we are in love with a resemblance solely or with a new personality, is, therefore, very desirable before marriage. If one marries because of a resemblance he or she will continue to live within the family circle, to remain a child mentally in many ways, and possibly put himself or herself in the way of unhappiness.