Desire

French: désir

Desire (French: désir) is a key concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis that refers to an unconscious force at the heart of human subjectivity. It is a dynamic that governs human actions and interactions, transcending mere biological needs or conscious wishes. Lacan's conception of desire is rooted in the Symbolic order, where it is not simply a quest for satisfaction but a perpetual force rooted in a fundamental lack that can never be fully fulfilled. Desire in Lacanian theory goes beyond Freud's early conception of wish and instinct, drawing from Hegel’s dialectics to argue that desire is fundamentally structured by the desire of the Other, not a direct relation to objects or instincts.

Terminology and translation

Désir vs Wunsch

Lacan’s term, désir, is often understood as distinct from Freud’s use of Wunsch (translated as “wish” in English) in his work, notably in the interpretation of dreams. While both terms relate to unconscious motivations, Lacan’s desire emphasizes its structural relation to language and the Other, rather than a straightforward wish for fulfillment.

In contrast, Freud’s notion of wish (Wunsch) in the Interpretation of Dreams (1900) is more aligned with a psychological desire linked to repression and the unconscious workings that manifest in dreams. Lacan retained much of Freud’s basic framework but redefined desire as a continuous, insatiable force, where satisfaction is never complete. Thus, the English translation of Lacan’s désir as “desire” is not only a linguistic choice but also a reflection of the theoretical implications Lacan brings to the concept: desire as a constant, relational force rather than a wish for specific objects.

History and genealogy

Freud: Unconscious wish and repressed desire

Freud's work in the early 20th century laid the groundwork for the understanding of unconscious wish fulfillment. In his theories on the unconscious and dreams, Freud posited that the unconscious contains wishes that are not directly accessible to the conscious mind, but are expressed through dream content and other formations of the unconscious. These wishes are often infantile and linked to repressed desires that persist despite being prohibited by societal and moral structures.

Lacan builds on Freud’s foundational insights, particularly the idea of unconscious desire, but shifts the focus from the content of these desires to the structural position of desire within the psyche. For Lacan, desire is not simply an undifferentiated wish or longing; it is bound to a specific structure of lack and is articulated through the process of signification in the Symbolic. This marks a departure from Freud’s model of desire as primarily a return of repressed instinctual drives.

Lacan: Desire as lack and the desire of the Other

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, desire is inseparable from the subject's encounter with the Other. Lacan's pivotal assertion that “man’s desire is the desire of the Other” encapsulates the idea that human desire is not directed toward specific objects but toward the recognition of the subject by the Other. This desire for recognition is foundational to Lacan's conception of the subject as it unfolds in the mirror stage and through its relationships within the Symbolic order. Unlike Freud’s biological view of instinct, Lacan presents desire as a force emerging from the absence or lack created by the prohibition of satisfaction (i.e., the Law) and the impossibility of total fulfillment.

Desire, in Lacan's view, is not just the seeking of an object but the pursuit of something that cannot be fully realized—hence its persistence and insatiable nature. It is through the Other’s recognition and the impossibility of achieving complete satisfaction that desire is perpetually reproduced.

Desire and its relation to need and demand

Need: Biological satisfaction

In Lacan’s framework, the distinction between need, demand, and desire is crucial to understanding the human subject. Need refers to the basic biological requirements of the body, such as hunger or thirst, that can be satisfied by obtaining the appropriate object. Once the need is satisfied, it ceases to be operative until another need arises. However, this biological understanding is transformed through language and the Symbolic order.

Demand: The articulation of need in language

Lacan emphasizes that while needs are biological, they must be articulated in the form of demand to be addressed. Demand, therefore, is a language-mediated act through which the subject requests something from the Other. This demand is not merely a request for a specific object but also an implicit request for recognition, love, and care. The demand thus creates a structural gap between what the subject needs (biologically) and what the subject truly desires (recognition and love). This gap produces a remainder that Lacan calls desire, which cannot be satisfied by any object but persists in the subject as a continuous force.

Desire: The remainder of demand

Desire arises when the demand for recognition and love cannot be fully satisfied. Lacan’s concept of desire is bound to this structural absence. It is not a simple longing for an object but a force that expresses the subject’s fundamental lack, tied to the impossibility of total satisfaction. Unlike need, which can be satisfied and abate, desire is a constant, insistent force that continues despite the satisfaction of any particular object.

Lacan’s distinction between need, demand, and desire shows how each concept operates within the psyche: need is biologically determined, demand is a social and linguistic articulation of that need, and desire emerges as the surplus or remainder of demand that can never be fully fulfilled.

Desire and the Other

One of Lacan’s most important contributions is his assertion that desire is always the desire of the Other. Desire is not directed toward objects for their own sake but is fundamentally structured by the desire for recognition from the Other. Lacan connects this to the Hegelian notion of desire, where desire is fundamentally relational—it is bound up with the recognition and acknowledgment by another.

This relational structure of desire makes the object of desire contingent on the Other’s desire. Lacan’s idea that the object of desire is an object desired by another—object petit a—helps explain why the subject’s desire is constantly displaced and can never be satisfied by any one object. The object itself is not the ultimate goal; rather, it is a symbolic placeholder for the missing recognition or love that the subject desires from the Other.

Clinical and theoretical implications

Desire in clinical practice

In psychoanalysis, Lacan’s concept of desire informs clinical practice by highlighting the ways in which a subject’s desires are shaped by their relationship to the Other. Analysts use Lacan’s theory of desire to help the analysand recognize the unconscious forces that govern their actions and relations, particularly in the context of transference. Understanding desire as a force rooted in the subject’s relationship to the Other, and not merely in the satisfaction of needs, allows psychoanalysis to explore the deeper, structural forces that influence the subject's unconscious dynamics.

Desire and ethics

Lacan’s theory of desire also has significant ethical implications. Lacan argues that desire is at odds with the drive for total satisfaction (jouissance) and with the imperatives of the super-ego, which demands continuous enjoyment. Desire, in Lacan’s view, opposes this demand for unbridled jouissance and introduces a limit to it, preserving the subject’s access to the symbolic order and ethical responsibility. Psychoanalysis, for Lacan, is not about fulfilling the subject’s desires in a direct way but about helping the subject confront and articulate their desire in a way that opens up the possibility for ethical transformation.

Debates and later developments

Lacan’s later theories: RSI and topology

Lacan’s later work, particularly in the context of the RSI (Real, Symbolic, Imaginary) registers and his use of topological models, further refines the concept of desire. In later formulations, Lacan connects desire to the topological notion of the Borromean knot, showing how desire is structured by the interdependence of the registers and the impossibility of a fully satisfying object. These developments show that desire, like the Other, is never simply reducible to an object but is part of a complex structural dynamic that sustains the subject’s psychic life.

See also

Need Demand

Drive Instinct

Love Mother

Law Recognition

Further reading

• Dylan Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge, 1996). (Entries: “desire,” “demand,” “drive,” “objet petit a.”)
• Jacques Lacan, Écrits: A Selection, trans. Bruce Fink (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006).
• Bruce Fink, The Lacanian Subject: Between Language and Jouissance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
• Bruce Fink, A Clinical Introduction to Lacanian Psychoanalysis: Theory and Technique (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997).
• Jean-Michel Rabaté (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Lacan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
• Dany Nobus (ed.), Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (London: Rebus Press, 1998).