24,656
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The concept of [[desire]] is the central concern of [[psychoanalytic theory]].
[[Lacan]]'s term, ''[[désir]]'', is the term used in the [[French]] translations of [[Freud]] to translate [[Freud]]'s term ''[[Wunsch]]'', which is translated as "[[wish]]" by Strachey in the ''[[Standard Edition]]''.
Hence English translators of [[Lacan]] are faced with a dilemma; should they translate ''[[désir]]'' by "[[wish]]", which is closer to [[Freud]]'s ''[[Wunsch]]'', or should they translate it as "[[desire]]", which is closer to the [[French]] term, but which lacks the allusion to [[Freud]]?
All of [[Lacan]]'s [[English]] translators have opted for the latter, since the [[English]] term "[[desire]]" conveys, like the [[French]] term, the implication of a ''continuous force'', which is essential to [[Lacan]]'s concept.
The [[English]] term also carries with it the same allusions to [[Hegel]]'s ''[[Begierde]]'' as are carried by the [[French]] term, and thus retains the philosophical nuances which are so essential to [[Lacan]]'s concept of ''[[désir]]'' and which make it "a category far wider and more abstract than any employed by [[Freud]] himself."<ref>Macey, 1995: 80</ref>
==Human ===''Unconscious'' Desire=====
If there is any one concept which can claim to be the very center of [[Lacan]]'s thought, it is the concept of [[desire]].
[[Lacan]] follows [[Spinoza]] in arguing that "[[desire]]" is the essence of man."<ref>{{S11}} p. 275</ref>
[[Desire]] is simultaneously the heart of [[human]] [[existence]] and the central concern of [[psychoanalysis]].
However, when [[Lacan]] talks about [[desire]], it is not any kind of [[desire]] he is referring to, but always ''[[unconscious]] '' [[desire]].
This is not because [[Lacan]] sees [[conscious]] [[desire]] as unimportant, but simply because it is [[unconscious]] [[desire]] that forms the central concern of [[psychoanalysis]].
[[Unconscious]] [[desire]] is entirely [[sexuality|sexual]]:; <blockquote>"the motives of the unconscious are limited . . . to sexual desire . . . The other great generic desire, that of hunger, is not represented."<ref>{{E}} p. 142</ref></blockquote>
It is only possible to recognize one's [[desire]] when it is articulate in [[speech]].
---
One of [[Lacan]]'s most important criticisms of the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic theories ]] of his day was that they tended to confuse the concept of [[desire ]] with the related concepts of DEMAND [[demand]] and NEED. In opposition to this tendency, Lacan insists on distinguishing between these three concepts[[need]].
This distinction begins to emerge in his work in 1957,<ref>{{S4}} pp. 100-1, 125</ref>, but only crystallises in 1958.<ref>{{L}} (1958c) "[[The Signification of the Phallus|La signification du phallus]]." ''[[Écrits]]''. Paris: Seuil, 1966: 685-95 ["[[The Signification of the Phallus|The signification of the phallus]]". Trans. [[Alan Sheridan]] ''[[Écrits: A Selection]]''. London: Tavistock, 1977; New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1977: 281-91].</ref>
=====Need =====[[Need]] is a purely [[biological]] [[instinct]], an appetite which emerges according to the requirements of the organism and which abates completely (even if only temporarily) when satisfied.
The [[human]] [[subject]], being born in a state of [[helplessness]], is unable to [[satisfy]] its own [[need]]s, and hence depends on the [[Other]] to help it [[satisfy]] them.
<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>
The realisation of [[desire]] does not consist in being "fulfilled", but in the reproduction of [[desire]] as such.
[[Lacan]]'s distinction between [[need]] and [[desire]], which lifts the concept of [[desire]] completely out of the realm of [[biology]], is strongly reminiscent of [[Kojève]]'s distinction between [[animal]] and [[human]] [[desire]]; [[desire]] is shown to be distinctively [[human]] when it is directed either toward another [[desire]], or to an object which is "perfectly useless from the [[biology|biological]] point of view."<ref>[[Alexandre Kojève|Kojève, Alexandre]] (1947 [1933---39]) ''Introduction to the Reading of Hegel''. Trans. James H. Nichols Jr. New York and London: Basic Books, 1969: 6</ref>
=====Desire and Drive=====
It is important to distinguish between [[desire]] and the [[drive]]s.
