Through clinical examples derived from her experience as an individual and group psychotherapist with young patients and adolescents, the author illustrates the evolution and functioning of the psychic structures at the basis of each individual position towards rules, laws, ethics and values as they are hypothesized in psychoanalytic theory: Superego, Ego Ideal and Ideal Ego. The relationships and interconnections among these structures are at the basis of the achievement and maintenance of personal autonomy, which is an attainable - but not always possible - state only when adolescence comes to an end.
Keywords: Autonomy, Superego, Ideal Ego, Ego Ideal, conscience, laws.