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==Human Infant==
The term '[[helplessness]]' is used in [[psychoanalysis]] to denote the state of the newborn [[infant]] who is incapable of carrying out the specific [[action]]s required to [[satisfy]] its own [[need]]s, and so is completely dependent on other people (especially the [[mother]]).
Compared to other animals such as apes, the [[human]] [[infant]] is relatively unformed when it is born, especially with respect to motor coordination.
This means that it is more dependent than other animals, and for a longer time, on its parents.
===Mother--Child Dual Relation==
[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in highlighting the importance of the initial dependence of the [[human]] [[infant]] on the [[mother]].
(The recognition of this contrast engenders a depressive effect in the [[child]].<ref>{{S4}} p.186</ref>)
==Psychoanalytic Treatment==
[[Lacan]] also uses the concept of [[helplessness]] to illustrate the sense of abandonment and [[subjective destitution]] that the [[analysand]] feels at the [[end of analysis]].
* [[Anxiety]]
* [[Illusion]]
* [[Thing]]
* [[Trauma]]