The wandering of children and helplessness

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on the institutional practices of shelters as far as the numerous relocations experienced by children and adolescents are concerned, considering our clinical psychoanalytic practice with this clientele. Such a refection is based upon the notion of helplessness considered by Freud as the structural psychic apparatus. Helplessness is inherent to the situation of dependence into which the human baby is born, thus leading it to the need for communication and the construction of a psychic apparatus built on the child's relationship with others. Some cases were selected to illustrate the specificity of this clientele and the legal and operational challenges arising from it. We aim to investigate how the situation of social vulnerability, unstable personal relationships and weak family bonds are related to the concept of helplessness.