ABSTRACT

The author focuses on ideas which struck him as especially important and also attempts to articulate the thoughts evoked in him about the interdependent connection with helplessness. The author's thoughts about hopelessness were always linked with the word helplessness. At times he was not even sure if this was to be a book about hopelessness or helplessness; the two words became interchangeable and he could not remember which was the theme of the book. The hopelessness/helplessness dyad encompasses other concepts used within psychoanalysis: conscious and unconscious wishes, deprivation, depression, despair, gratification, self, other, relational patterns, autonomy, and I add "opportunity". In authors' view, hope for change and the capacity to use help are critically associated with relational patterns developed due to earlier trauma. That is, relationship patterns can interfere with making good use of opportunity.