Changes

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.

[[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>)

[[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]]