ABSTRACT
Dependency always implies a relationship. On the one hand, there is the potential to give support; on the other, there is the fear or hope, desire for, or even expectation of that support. An apparently neutral concept of dependency is nevertheless surrounded and coloured by ethical debate, psychological theory, and political philosophy, so that it may seem to emerge as not neutral at all: dependency bad—independence good. Dependence and dependency are obviously connected. But it is important to distinguish them, and particularly to show which is being referred to when the adjective “dependent” is employed. In its primitive sense, dependency derives from a frightening and frightened state of mind, where the immature organism looks desperately in its environment for a reliable object to save it from unimaginable danger. Dependency in this sense has therefore been seen as pathological and destructive, and social institutions that are thought to encourage such dependency have themselves come under attack.
