"Once upon a time a relationship of help ..."

Abstract

It is usual for the helping relationship to appear as a synonym of educational, social and medico-social relationship; it is supposed to express its quintessence, its first reason and its ultimate purpose. This seems obvious, not without reason. It is a help that social workers, psychologists, doctors and other professionals offer - and sometimes impose - on people who have more or less difficult psychic or physical problems. It is a help that, on the other hand, these people look for from the specialists ..., specialized help, precisely because they mobilize knowledge and know-how-to make technicians, references and specific ethical positions, relative but real powers. The help must not be taken in its generic, general, even generalist sense, just as the word works in ordinary life. Helping a child to cross a street or regularly worry about someone's physical and / or mental health problems by providing them with help in terms of advice and directives to improve their condition, does not coincide exactly or completely in the meaning of the term in the social or medico-social field. Since it is, in the latter case, a word that is highly esteemed, professionals usually take a few years to appropriate it in the course of their practices. This is what I would like to detail next, doing a brief theoretical-political investigation.