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In this article the authors explore the various aspects of boredom, a very widespread phenomenon, especially in adolescence. Beginning with some thoughts on its possible origins, they show that boredom intersects with different psychopathological contexts. The clinical material, derived from the cases of two adolescents, shows that boredom can be considered primarily as a defence. In the first case it is a strategy of avoidance aimed at silencing the instinctual drive charge linked to desire, through a decathexis of the relationship between the subject and his internal and external objects. In the second case, the adolescent makes a desperate attempt, through boredom, to ­contain a deep depression and to hide perverse fantasies.