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==Lack and Desire==
The term "[[lack]]" is always related, in [[Lacan]]'s teaching, to [[desire]]. It is a [[lack]] which causes [[desire]] to arise.<ref>{{S8}} p. 139</ref> However, the precise nature of what is [[lack]]ing varies over the course of [[Lacan]]'s [[Works of Jacques Lacan|work]].
==Lack of Being==
When the term first appears, in 1955, [[lack]] designates first and foremost a [[lack|lack of being]]. What is [[desire]]d is [[being]] itself.
<blockquote>Desire is a relation of being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It isn't the lack of this or that, but lack of being whereby the being exists."<ref>{{S2}} p. 223</ref></blockquote>
[[Lacan]] returns to this theme in 1958, when he argues that [[desire]] is the [[metonymy]] of the [[lack|lack of being]] (''[[lack|manque à être]]'').<ref>{{E}} p. 259; translated by Sheridan as "want-to-be"</ref> The [[subject]]'s [[lack|lack of being]] is "the heart of the analytic experience" and "the very field in which the neurotic's passion is deployed.<ref>{{E}} p. 251</ref> [[Lacan]] contrasts the [[lack|lack of being]], which relates to [[desire]], with the [[lack|lack of having]] (''[[lack|manque à avoir]]''), which relates to [[demand]].<ref>{{Ec}} p.730</ref>
==Lack of an Object==