Helplessness is the state of being unable to do anything for yourself. A sense of helplessness, utter helplessness, feel helplessness.
Learned helplessness is the studied version: animals and people who find that nothing they do changes an outcome stop trying, even when escape becomes possible — which is one of the most influential findings in psychology and a model for how depression can take hold. Note helpless, help.
1nounhelplessnessThe state of being unable to do anything for yourself.
“After the operation, the old man hated his helplessness and the need to be fed.”
helplessness is a state of powerlessness.
Helpless plus -ness, from help, an Old English verb. The -less is the usual ending meaning without.
Proto-Germanic
*helpōlausaz
Old English
*helplēas — helpless
Middle English
helples
English
helpless
English, today
helplessness
From helpless + -ness. helpless comes from Middle English helples, from Old English helplēas (“helpless”) from Proto-Germanic helpōlausaz, equivalent to help + less. Compare Dutch hulpeloos (“helpless”), German hilflos (“helpless”), Danish hjælpeløs (“helpless”) and Swedish hjälplös (“helpless”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA