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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]]. Compared to other [[nature|animal]]s such as apes, the [[development|human infant]] is relatively unformed when it is [[born]], especially with respect to ''[[motor coordination]]''. 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]]'''. [[Lacan]]'s originality lies in the way he draws attention to "the fact that this dependence is maintained by a [[world ]] of [[language]].<ref>{{E}} p. 309</ref> The [[mother]] [[interpretation|interpret]]s the [[infant]]'s cries as hunger, tiredness, loneliness, etc. and [[punctuation|retroactively]] determines their [[signification|meaning]] (see [[punctuation]]). The [[development|child]]'s [[helplessness]] contrasts with the omnipotence of the [[mother]], who can decide whether or not to [[desire|satisfy]] the [[development|child]]'s [[need]]s.<ref>{{S4}} p. 69, 185</ref> 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]]. "At the end of a [[training]] [[analysis]] the [[subject]] should reach and [[know ]] the [[domain ]] and level of the [[experience ]] of absolute disarray."<ref>{{S7}} p. 304</ref> The [[end of analysis]] is not conceived of by [[Lacan]] as the realization of some blissful plenitude, but quite the contrary, as a [[moment ]] when the [[subject]] comes to [[terms ]] with his utter solitude. However, whereas the [[development|infant]] can rely on its [[mother]]'s [[helplessness|help]], the [[analysand]] at the [[end of analysis]] "can expect [[help]] from no one."<ref>{{S7}} p. 304</ref> 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 ]] ascesis."<ref>{{E}} p. 105</ref>