Changes

The term "[[helplessness]]" is used in [[psychoanalysis]] to denote the state of the newborn [[development|infant]] who is incapable of carrying out the specific [[act]]ions required to [[desire|satisfy]] its own [[need]]s, and so is completely ''dependent'' on other people (especially the [[mother]]).

The [[helplessness]] of the [[development|human infant]] is grounded in its "'''prematurity'''" of birth, a fact which was pointed out by [[Freud]] and which [[Lacan]] takes up in his [[Jacques Lacan:Bibliography|early writings]].

This means that it is more ''dependent'' than other [[nature|animal]]s, and for a longer time, on its parents.

[[Lacan]] follows [[Freud]] in highlighting the importance of the initial ''dependence'' of the [[development|human infant]] on the '''[[mother]]'''.

The recognition of this contrast engenders a depressive effect in the [[child]].<ref>{{S4}} p. 186</ref>

[[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]]'''.

If this seems to present a particularly ascetic view of [[treatment|psychoanalytic treatment]], this is exactly how [[Lacan]] wishes it to be seen; [[psychoanalysis]] is, in [[Lacan]]'s words, a "long subjective acesis."<ref>{{E}} p. 105</ref>

{{See}}

* [[Development]]

{{Also}}

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