Difference between revisions of "Demand"
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In other words, the [[infant]]'s screams become organized in a [[linguistic]] [[structure]] long before the child is capable of articulating recognizable words. | In other words, the [[infant]]'s screams become organized in a [[linguistic]] [[structure]] long before the child is capable of articulating recognizable words. | ||
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| + | It is the symbolic nature of the infant's screams which forms thekernel of Lacan's concept of demand, which Lacan introduces in 1958 in the context of his distinction between need, demand and desire. | ||
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| + | Lacan argues that since the infant is incapable of performingthe specific actions that would satisfy its biological needs, it must articulate those needs in vocal form (demands) so that another (the mother) will perform the specific action instead. | ||
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| + | The primary example of such a biological need is hunger, which the child articulates in a scream (Demand) so that the mother will feed it. | ||
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| + | --- | ||
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| + | However, because the object which satisfies the child's need is provided by another, it takes on the added significance of being a proof of the Other's love. | ||
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| + | Accordingly demand too acquires a double function: in addition toarticualting a need, it also becomes a demand for love. | ||
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| + | And just as the symbolic funciton of the object as a proof of love overshadows its real funciton as that which satisfies a need, so too the symbolic dimension of demand (as a demand for love) eclipses its real function (as an articulation of need). | ||
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| + | It is this double function which gives birth to desire, since while the needs which demand articulates may be satisfied, the craving for love is unconditional and insatiable, and hence persists as a leftover even after the neeeds have been satisfied; this leftover constitutes desire. | ||
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| + | --------------------- | ||
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| + | In 1961, [[Lacan]] rethinks the various stages of libidinal organisation as forms of [[demand]]. | ||
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| + | The [[oral phase]] of [[development]] is constituted by a [[demand]] (made by the subject) to be fed (which is a demand made by the subject). | ||
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| + | In the anal stage, on the other hand, it is not a question of the subject's demand, but the demand of the Other (the parent who disciplines the child in potty-training).<ref>{{S8}} p.238-46, 269</ref> | ||
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| + | In both of these pregenital stages the satisfaction of demand eclipses desire; only in the genital stage does desire comes to be fully constituted.<ref>{{S8}} p.270</ref> | ||
Revision as of 15:47, 4 August 2006
Although the term "demand" only begins to figure prominently in Lacan's work from 1958 on, related themes are already present in the 1956-7 seminar.
It is in this seminar that Lacan discusses the call (l'appel), the baby's cry to the mother.[1]
Lacan argues that this cry (cri) is not merely an instinctual signal but "is inserted in a synchronic world of cries organized in a symbolic system.[2]
In other words, the infant's screams become organized in a linguistic structure long before the child is capable of articulating recognizable words.
It is the symbolic nature of the infant's screams which forms thekernel of Lacan's concept of demand, which Lacan introduces in 1958 in the context of his distinction between need, demand and desire.
Lacan argues that since the infant is incapable of performingthe specific actions that would satisfy its biological needs, it must articulate those needs in vocal form (demands) so that another (the mother) will perform the specific action instead.
The primary example of such a biological need is hunger, which the child articulates in a scream (Demand) so that the mother will feed it.
---
However, because the object which satisfies the child's need is provided by another, it takes on the added significance of being a proof of the Other's love.
Accordingly demand too acquires a double function: in addition toarticualting a need, it also becomes a demand for love.
And just as the symbolic funciton of the object as a proof of love overshadows its real funciton as that which satisfies a need, so too the symbolic dimension of demand (as a demand for love) eclipses its real function (as an articulation of need).
It is this double function which gives birth to desire, since while the needs which demand articulates may be satisfied, the craving for love is unconditional and insatiable, and hence persists as a leftover even after the neeeds have been satisfied; this leftover constitutes desire.
In 1961, Lacan rethinks the various stages of libidinal organisation as forms of demand.
The oral phase of development is constituted by a demand (made by the subject) to be fed (which is a demand made by the subject).
In the anal stage, on the other hand, it is not a question of the subject's demand, but the demand of the Other (the parent who disciplines the child in potty-training).[3]
In both of these pregenital stages the satisfaction of demand eclipses desire; only in the genital stage does desire comes to be fully constituted.[4]
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.182
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre IV. La relation d'objet, 19566-57. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.188
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.238-46, 269
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Le Séminaire. Livre VIII. Le transfert, 1960-61. Ed. Jacques-Alain Miller. Paris: Seuil, 1991. p.270
