These days it is possible to observe changes in the subjective organization modes. The redefinition of the roles of men and women and the new modalities of filiation have changed the father’s role, and this has been reflected in the actual performance of being a father, namely, in passing the law. This is fundamental for the structuring of a human being and for his/her social co-existence. Nowadays, the self seems to have no sense of limits, no landmarks and new ways of psychic disorganization arise with that. Panic disorder can be seen as a main paradigm of helplessness in our time. As a psychopathologic category, this disorder is new; as a psychoanalytical clinical record, it is associated to phobias. The present study aims to describe, from a psychiatric point of view, such disorder and discuss, based on psychoanalysis, the state of helplessness, caused by the fragility of the symbolic law as a characteristic of this symptom.
Helplessness; Phobias; Panic disorder; Psychoanalysis