The most basic form of power is the power to exist
The psychologist Rollo May, in his book Power and Innocence, said that every child, every person, strives to gain power. Power is a fundamental human need. May thinks the most basic form of power is the strength to simply be, to stay alive. In some way, each of us maintains a hold on life. Take that away, and we die. As a medical social worker with the elderly, I knew of several elderly patients who simply gave up, despite being essentially healthy, and rapidly died. They could no longer care for themselves; they had no one or nothing to live for. So they let go.