The quality of narcissistic basis is determinant in the separation process which conducts the adolescent to the disinvestment of oedipal subjects. This psychic work requires several aspects of narcissism such as: the solidity of the limits inside/outside, which must be able to contain pulsional increasement and protect the subject from external stimulations, the possibility to take shelter in a specular space when relational investments are threatening and the support on a constant internal object which guaranteed the subject the feeling of being alive, even when the oedipal objects are moved away. The study of narcissistic defenses as they appear in projective tests shows that their function and their effectiveness regarding the global economic functioning are significantly different between the two groups. For neurotic adolescents, the symbolizing power of unconscious oedipian conflicts and the anxiety of losing the love from the oedipian object seems to provide a fantasmatic limit to narcissitic pain. Whereas for borderline adolescents (mainly subjects presenting eating disorders), the narcissistic pain is hemorraghic, and the separation process can cause feeling of self- annihilation.