The dynamic intrinsic viscosity of flexible chain polymers in dilute solution is studied on the basis of the discrete helical worm-like chain. The correlation function formalism of the complex intrinsic viscosity [η] is given, taking account of the effect of the finite hydrodynamic volumes of subbodies of the chain. A new basis set, which is a hybrid of the one- and two-body excitation basis functions, is introduced. Then the eigenvalue problem for the representation of the diffusion operator may be reduced to N six-dimensional eigenvalue problems with N the number of subbodies. Among the six branches of the eigenvalue spectrum, one global and two local branches make contribution to the dynamic intrinsic viscosity. The theory predicts the existence of the high-frequency plateau which is distinguished from the infinitely high-frequency viscosity. The plateau arises from the interaction between the global and local chain motions (caused by the helical nature of the local chain contour), the constraints, and the finite hydrodynamic volumes of the subbodies. The interaction above vanishes for the Kratky–Porod worm-like chain possessing no helical nature. A comparison of theory with experiment is made with respect to the plateau value, and it is found that its dependence on the chemical structure of the chain may well be explained.