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Boredom can be considered as an affect with nosographic limits because it questions both the normal and the pathological. It is particularly frequent in adolescence and accompanies these young adults both in their spare time and at school. Boredom questions these precarious limits so frequently at that age inasmuch as it creates a conflict between active and passive dialogue and sustains the differentiation between self and others. Through the experience of a psychiatric institutional practice, the author offers an understanding of boredom that can be both the shaping of an absent object and a support for the regulation of internal and external excitements, which can lead to a more moderate subjectification. This highlights the defensive and explosive aspects of this specific affect of human beings in their relationship to time.