ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two points: the first is a comment on an idea that has often been mentioned—that is the concept of dependence. The second deals with an idea that will appear to some of a theological idea—that is the predestination of the child. The prematurity of the child is a biological fact; but a fact that, as it were, does not exist, because it is transformed straight away into psychological dependence. And it is in an inter-psychological framework that we must consider the problem put, not by the impulse needs, but by the wishes of the child, or the instincts properly so-called, if one re-introduces the concept of instinctual behaviour on the part of the child. Requirements involve relations of power because the power is expected to help and has the possibility of granting or refusing that help; that is how the all-powerful adult appears to the child.
