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= D.: Hilflosigkeit.–Es.: desamparo.–Fr.: incapacité à s'aider.–I.: l'essere senza aiuto.–P.: desamparo or desarvoramento.
This common word has a specific meaning in Freudian theory, where it is used to denote the state of the human suckling which, being entirely dependent on other people for the satisfaction of its needs (hunger, thirst), proves incapable of carrying out the specific action necessary to put an end to internal tension.
For the adult, the state of helplessness is the prototype of the traumatic situation which is responsible for the generation of anxiety.
The word ‘Hilflosigkeit’ constitutes a permanent reference-point for Freud, and it deserves to be signalled out and translated consistently. This state of helplessness is an essentially objective datum–the situation of impotence in which the newborn human infant finds itself. The baby is incapable of undertaking coordinated and effective action (see ‘’); Freud calls this state of affairs motor helplessness (motorische Hilflosigkeit) 1a. And, from the * point of view, this situation results in an increase of the tension brought about by need–an increase which the psychical apparatus is as yet unable to control: this is what is meant by psychical helplessness (psychische Hilflosigkeit).
The idea of an initial state of helplessness is at the root of several lines of psycho-analytic inquiry:
a. Genetically speaking 2, it is on the basis of this idea that we are able to understand the primordial role played by the *, its hallucinatory reproduction and the distinction between the primary and secondary processes*.
b. As a corollary of the total dependence of the human infant on its mother, the state of helplessness implies the mother's omnipotence. It thus has a decisive influence on the structuring of the psyche–a process which is destined to come about entirely on the basis of the relationship with the other person.
c. Within the framework of the theory of anxiety, helplessness becomes the prototy