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Psychoanalytically, deprivation is the reduced fulfillment of a [[desire ]] or [[need ]] that is felt to be essential. Sigmund [[Freud ]] (1927c) considered deprivation the result of the [[frustration ]] of a [[drive ]] that could not be [[satisfied ]] because of a [[prohibition]], and he was particularly interested in [[sexual ]] deprivation. Later, [[psychoanalysis ]] focused on the [[maternal ]] deprivation caused either by the final or temporary [[absence ]] of the [[mother ]] or by her difficulty in providing primary care for the infant—a deprivation likely to have irreversible effects on the [[child]]'s [[development]].

For the [[infant]], deprivation, as the result of an intrapsychic [[process ]] related to [[needs ]] or desires, assumes various forms. It is modulated by the reaction of the primary [[object]], the mother, as well as the [[moment ]] when the deprivation is produced, its duration, or even the attitude of mother substitutes.

The importance given to [[reality ]] and its traumas compared to the reality of the representational [[world ]] forms the basis of the differences among [[psychoanalytic ]] theories. For example, [[psychoanalysts ]] have studied the effects of "quantitative deprivation," when the infant must confront the [[physical ]] absence of the primary maternal object from [[birth]], a condition known as hospitalism (Spitz, 1945), or after the establishment of a bond, a condition known as [[anaclitic ]] [[depression ]] (Spitz, 1946), which includes the phases of fright, despair, and [[separation]]. During these [[three ]] phases, the infant is primarily searching for the lost anaclitic object, then, overcome with despair, enters into a [[situation ]] of more or less pronounced [[denial]], depending on the level of [[structuration ]] of the [[internal ]] object and the duration of separation. This process involves directing diffuse but unbearable [[aggressive ]] impulses against the [[self]], [[hatred ]] of the incorporated internal object, and deprivation of the maternal [[breast ]] accompanied by deprivation of the ([[oral]]) [[apparatus ]] that would enable the infant to use it. Sometimes there is also a deprivation of all creative ability and the [[dissolution ]] of the integrative process together with the [[inhibition ]] or dissociation of impulses ([[Winnicott]], 1984).

"Qualitative deprivation" has also been described, and occurs when the infant is presented with an object that prevents him from experiencing his impulses in an acceptable [[form ]] because they are uncontrolled. This object does not assume the contradictory [[role ]] of ensuring the [[satisfaction ]] of the infant's needs and pushing him toward [[autonomy ]] and does not [[understand ]] his signals or his [[thoughts]]. Operating behaviors and idealizing systems dominate this form of mother-child [[relationship ]] (Kreisler., 1992) to prevent transient personal difficulties, struggles, and traumas from becoming [[mental ]] pathologies, especially depressive and [[schizophrenic]].

Forms of "mixed deprivation" are also known, where the interruption of maternal care and inadequate support are the basis of [[narcissistic ]] collapse and weakness during the process of separation-individuation.

The effects of [[affective ]] deprivation (Bowlby, 1951) have been studied among infants placed in institutions, hospitals, or foster homes (Winnicott, 1984), and in the context of [[family ]] [[life]]. This has led to observation of depression and borderline and antisocial pathologies such as [[psychosis]]. Françoise Dolto has described the sudden and long-lasting dissociation found to [[exist ]] following early hospitalization or repeated changes of care providers—without any possible reparation of the [[image ]] of the [[body ]] or the [[subject]]. The infant can regress to a [[state ]] in which his vital needs are satisfied in a context where subtle, [[verbal]], mimetic, or motor exchanges no longer take [[place]]. Having become autistic, the child's impulses no longer have an outlet and result in teratological [[symbolization ]] through [[hallucination]].

Léon Kreisler has studied depression (blank and empty) during periods of qualitative deprivation, especially their development on the [[psychosomatic ]] level. [[Other ]] authors have ascribed important narcissistic pathologies ([[feelings ]] of emptiness, captive [[self-image]], [[lack ]] of confidence), along with the [[intolerance ]] to frustration that provokes the transition to [[action]], which is manifested during adolescence. [[Donald Winnicott ]] has studied the dynamics of the antisocial act and the accompanying [[feeling ]] of hopeful [[suffering]]. "In fact," he writes, "deprivation does not deform the organization of the ego as in psychosis but pushes the infant to force the context to recognize the deprivation and . . . the antisocial act manifests itself when the infant begins to create an object relationship and invest a person."

Abandonment; [[Anaclisis]]/anaclitic; [[Analytic ]] psychodrama; Breakdown; [[Developmental ]] disorders; Frustration; Hospitalism; Maternal care; Self-mutilation in [[children]]; Stranger; [[Transference ]] depression.