While all these observations have yet to be confirmed by means of the analysis of some supplementary testimonies, they already point to ways in which therapeutic care can be improved. “If we record a testimony that is immature and impersonal, this gives us an idea about how to proceed”, explains the psychologist. “Preaching to them or telling them ‘you must get thin’ is likely to result in failure if we do not help them to become more mature, to develop a less childish outlook”.

Using food to fill a void in their lives

Aurore Boulard also underlines the important sense of isolation felt by obese teenagers, even when they are in the company of their parents and friends. “Food becomes like a person who occupies such a large space that they cannot be removed overnight. They must be replaced by something else. What do those who are well talk to us about? Mainly about their families and their friends. It would be necessary therefore to replace food with the social connection they are lacking”.

“The subjects encountered during the life testimonies give us a therapeutic basis for our work”, she continues. When we know, for example, that a depressed teenager defines him or herself in a negative way, feels that he or she is going from one failure to another and they cannot see any future, we try to help him or her to regain self-confidence, to see themselves in the future, maybe not five years into the future but simply to learn to plan activities for the afternoon or the hour that follows etc.”

Other similar research is also in the pipeline, particularly concerning diabetic and hemophiliac teenagers. The first results, which are still incomplete, show topics and language that is specific to these two groups. Jean-Marie Gauthier and his team plan to study anorexia. They have already made contact with a hospital. However the task will not be easy: the more serious the illness, the more difficult it is to gather a sufficient number of testimonies. For example, it took a year and a half to gather 20 life stories from depressed and hospitalized teenagers.

Aurore Boulard’s research has also led her down another path: that of studying the life stories of youngsters under 18 years of age. Among the 268 interviews conducted, some already involved this category of students. The researcher established the fact that their testimonies were completely different and that they were capable of metacognition, of distancing themselves from themselves and putting their life experience into perspective according to their own vision of the world.

This is a way of completing the picture, the fact of having recorded the testimonies of children aged between 3 and 12 years and then children aged between 12 and 18. New recorded data will therefore be added to the 13,400 already transcribed…