ABSTRACT
Dependency is a bad word. It has done some loose living on the tongues of many people; it has kept questionable company with other bad words like ‘pauperization’ and ‘welfare state’; it has been under attack by a group of highly respectable myths; and it has a way of making some people angry and other people uneasy. Economic dependency may be said to be a condition of having to rely upon some source of income which the individual does not earn by his labours or endeavours. The signs by which one can detect psychological dependency are not that the individual gets aid to dependent children, old age assistance, or general assistance. They are, rather, the presence of feelings of resignation, helplessness, hostile pessimism, physical sickness for which doctors can find no organic base, passivity, and inability to mobilize the self to take necessary action or responsibilities.
