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So-called gifted children generally uphold the ego-ideal of their family. But sometimes, when they reach adolescence, they present symptoms or manifest sexual orientations which are far less to the liking of the family than their intellectual gifts. They destabilize the family system and upset their parents. Their brothers and sisters consider them strangers or intruders who, because of their differences, disturb them. A clinical observation and a recent novel offer the opportunity to discuss the effects these teenagers have on their relatives, and even on society as a whole. When they cease to identify with the family ideal, these gifted youngsters disrupt the family, because of the incompatibility of their sexual orientation (homosexuality, for example) with the family ideals.