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The concept of [[desire]] is the central concern of [[psychoanalytic [theory]].

==Desire, Need and Demand==

[[Lacan]] distinguishes between three related concepts:

* [[desire]]

[[Need]] emerges according to the requirements of the organism and abates completely (even if only temporarily) when [[satisfied]].

The [[demand]] serves to bring the [[Other]] to help [[satisfy]] the [[needs]] of the [[infant]].

[[Demand]] is also a [[demand]] for [[love]] (beyond the [[satisfaction]] of [[need]]).

The [[need]]s which are articulated in [[demand]]s are [[satisfied]].

<blockquote>"[[Desire]] is neither the appetite for [[satisfaction]], nor the [[demand]] for [[love]], but the difference that results from the subtraction of the first from the second."<ref>{{E}} p.287</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>"[[Desire]] begins to take shape in the margin in which [[demand]] becomes separated from [[need]]."<ref>{{E}} p.311</ref></blockquote>

A [[need]] (that is [[satisfied]]) ceases to motivate the [[infant]] until another [[need]] arises.

[[Desire]] is constant in its pressure, and eternal.

[[Lacan]] asserted that [[desire]] is the [[desire]] of the [[Other]].

<blockquote>"[[Man]]'s [[desire]] is the [[desire]] of the [[Other]].<ref>{{S11}} p.235</ref></blockquote>

[[Desire]] is the [[desire]] for the [[Other]]'s [[desire]], that is, the [[desire]] to be the [[object]] of the [[Other]]'s [[desire]].

The [[Oedipus complex]] illustrates the [[desire]] of the [[subject]] to be the [[phallus]] for the [[mother]].

<blockquote>"The [[object]] of [[man]]'s [[desire]] ... is essentially an [[object]] [[desire]]d by someone else."<ref>Lacan. 1951b. p.12</ref></blockquote>

The [[object]] is [[desirable]] (not due to any intrinsic quality but) because [[other]]s [[desire]] it.

It is qua [[Other]] that the [[subject]] [[desire]]s.<ref>{{E}} p.312</ref>

It is [[human]] to [[desire]] what others [[desire]] because they [[desire]] it.

[[Desire]] is [[desire]] for the [[Other]].

The fundamental [[desire]] is the [[incestuous]] [[desire]] for the [[mother]], the primordial [[Other]].<ref>{{S7}} p.67</ref>

<blockquote>[[Desire]] is always "the [[desire]] for something else," because it is impossible to [[desire]] what one already has.<ref>{{E}} p.167</ref></blockquote>

The [[object]] of [[desire]] is continually deferred, which is why [[desire]] is [[metonymy]].<ref>{{E}} p.175</ref>

[[Desire]] emerges originally in the field of the [[Other]], that is, in the [[unconscious]].

<blockquote>The most important point to emerge from Lacan’s phrase [that "the object of man’s desire […] is essentially an object desired by someone else" (qtd. in Evans 38)] is that desire is a social product. Desire is not the private affair it appears to be but is always constituted in a dialectical relationship with the perceived desires of other subjects."<ref>Evans 39</ref></blockquote>

The [[objet petit a]] is represented by a variety of [[partial object]]s in diffent partial [[drive]]s.

[[Desire]] is not a relation to an [[object]], but a relation to a [[lack]].

The [[law]] gives rise to [[desire]] as that which circulates endlessly around a [[prohibited]] core (of ''[[jouissance]]'').

(The [[prohibition]] establishes [[desire]] as the ultimate motivational force in [[subjectivity]].)

The [[aim]] of [[psychoanalytic]] [[treatment]] is to lead the [[analysand]] to recognize the [[truth]] about his or her [[desire]].

<blockquote>In [[psychoanalysis]], "what's important is to teach the [[subject]] to name, to articulate, to bring this [[desire]] into [[existence]]."<ref>{{S2}} p.228</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>"That the [[subject]] should come to recognise and to name his [[desire]]; that is the efficacious action of [[analysis]]. But it isn't a question of [[recognising]] something which would be entirely given. ... In naming it, the [[subject]] creates, brings forth, a new [[presence]] in the world."<ref>{{S2}} p.228-9</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>"Although the [[truth]] about [[desire]] is present to some degree in all [[speech]], [[speech]] can never articulate the whole [[truth]] about [[desire]]; whenever [[speech]] attempts to articulate [[desire]], there is always a leftover, a [[surplus]], which exceeds [[speech]]."<ref>Evans 36</ref></blockquote>

[[Desire]] is created at the moment of the [[infant]]'s accession to the [[symbolic]] [[order]].

[[Desire]] is inscribed in the [[signifying chain]] in its essential [[metonymy]].

<blockquote>"[[Man]]’s [[desire]] is a [[metonymy]]. [...] [[Desire]] is a [[metonymy]]."<ref>{{E}} p.175</ref></blockquote>

==Impossible Desire==

The core around which [[desire]] circulates is [[prohibited]].

The important aspect of the paternal interdiction that inaugurates the infant’s traumatic accession to the symbolic order is that what the word-of-the-father interdicts is in fact an impossibility.

The paternal interdiction only formalises this impossibility as a prohibition, covering it over with the compensation of symbolisation.

==Desire and the Death Drive==

[[Lacan]] posits a distinction between [[desire]] and [[drive]].

[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]

[[Category:Terms]]

[[Category:Concepts]]

[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]