Difference between revisions of "Drive"

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{{Top}}pulsion]]''; [[German]]: ''[[Trieb{{Bottom}}
 
  
==Drive and Instinct==
+
THE DRIVE
===Sigmund Freud===
 
[[Freud]]'s concept of the [[drive]] is central to his theory of [[human]] [[sexuality]]; it lies at the heart of his theory of [[sexuality]].
 
  
For [[Freud]], the distinctive feature of [[human]] [[sexuality]] -- as opposed to the sexual life of other animals -- is that it is not regulated by any [[instinct]] -- a concept which implies a relatively fixed and innate relationship to an [[object]] -- but by the [[drive]]s -- which differ from [[instinct]]s in that they are extremely variable, and develop in ways which are contingent on the life history of the [[subject]].
 
  
===Jacques Lacan===
+
THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN AN INSTINCT AND A DRIVE
[[Lacan]] insists on maintaining the [[Freud]]ian distinction between [[drive]] and [[instinct]].<ref>{{E}} p.301</ref>
 
  
Whereas [[instinct]] denotes a mythical [[linguistic|pre-linguistic]] [[need]], the [[drive]] is completely removed from the realm of [[biology]].
+
It is crucial to acknowledge the distinction between an [[instinct]] and a [[drive]].
  
====Aim of the Drive====
+
An [[instinct]] designates a '''[[need]]''' that can be [[desire|satisfied]].
The [[drive]]s differ from [[biological]] [[need]]s in that they can never be [[satisfied]], and do not aim at an [[object]] but rather circle perpetually round it.
 
  
[[Lacan]] argues that the purpose of the [[drive]] (''[[Triebziel]]'') is not to reach a ''goal'' (a final destination) but to follow its ''aim'' (the way itself), which is to circle round the [[object]].<ref>{{S11}} p.168</ref>
+
The examples [[Freud]] usually gives are those of ''hunger'' and ''thirst''.
  
Thus the real purpose of the [[drive]] is not some mythical goal of full [[satisfaction]], but to return to its circular path, and the real source of [[enjoyment]] is the [[repetition|repetitive movement]] of this closed circuit.
+
These [[need]]s give rise to an ''excitation'' within the body that can be [[desire|satisfied]] and neutralized.
  
====Drive as Cultural and Symbolic Construct====
+
---
[[Lacan]] reminds his readers that [[Freud]] defined the [[drive]] as a montage composed of four discontinuous elements: the pressure, the end, the object and the source.
 
  
The [[drive]] cannot therefore be conceived of as "some ultimate given, something archaic, primordial."<ref>{{S11}} p.162</ref>
+
The [[drive]], on the other hand, cannot be [[desire|satisfied]] and is characterized by the ''constancy'' of the pressure it exerts on [[consciousness]].
  
It is a thoroughly [[culture|cultural]] and [[symbolic]] construct.
+
=====Translation=====
  
[[Lacan]] thus empties the concept of the [[drive]] of the lingering references in [[Freud]]'s work to energetics and hydraulics.
+
The [[Standard Edition]] of the [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|works]] of [[Sigmund Freud|Freud]] fails to reister the important distinction he makes between '''''[[Instinkt]]''''' and '''''[[Trieb]]'''''.
  
  
==The Circuit of the Drive==
 
[[Lacan]] incorporates the four elements of the [[drive]] in his theory of the [[drive]]'s circuit.
 
  
In this circut, the [[drive]] originates in an [[erogenous zone]].
+
[[Freud]] normally uses the word '''''[[Instinkt]]''''' to refer to a relatively fixed set of behavioral patterns triggered by external stimuli; [[instinct]]s are characteristic of [[nature|animals]], and are [[biology|biologically]] defined.<ref>{{F}} (1915a) "Instincts and their Vicissitudes." [[SE]] XIV; ''Penguin Freud Library'' XI</ref>
  
This circuit is structured by the three grammatical voices.
+
Unlike an [[instinct]] a [[drive]] or '''''[[Trieb]]''''' (from the verb ''tereiben'', "to push") does not have a preordained goal and is characterized by the pressure it exerts within the [[psyche]].
  
# The active voice (e.g. to see)
+
The aims or goals of [[drive]]s ar eextremely variable and are strongly influenced by the history of the individual.  
  
# The reflexive voice (e.g. to see oneself)
+
A [[drive]] is characterized by its source ( a physical stimulus or erogenous zone), its aim (the elimination of the tension caused by stimulation) and its object (anything that enables it to fulfil its aim).
  
# The passive voice (e.g. to be seen)
+
[[Freud]]'s theory of [[drive]]s is dualistic, and a distinction is made beween ego-drives , whcih are directed towards self-preservation, and sexual drives.
  
===Activity and Passivity===
+
In his later work, Freud introduces a further distinction between life-drives and the death drive.
The first of these two times (active and reflexive voices) are autoerotic; they lack a [[subject]].  
 
  
Only in the third time (the passive voice), when the [[drive]] completes its circuit, does "a new subject" appear (which is to say that before this time, there was no subject).
 
  
Although the third time is the passive voice, the [[drive]] is always essentially active, which is why [[Lacan]] writes that the third time not as "to be seen" but as "to make oneself be seen."
 
  
Even supposedly "passive" phases of the [[drive]] such as [[masochism]] involve [[activity]].<ref>{{S11}} p.200</ref>
 
  
The circuit of the [[drive]] is the only way for the [[subject]] to transgress the [[pleasure principle]].
 
  
  
==The Partial Nature of the Drives==
 
[[Freud]] argued that [[sexuality]] is composed of a number of [[drive|partial drives]] ([[Ger]]. ''[[drive|Partieltrieb]]'') such as the [[drive|oral drive]] and the [[drive|anal drive]], each specified by a different source (a different erotogenic zone).
 
  
At first these component [[drive]]s function anarchically and independently (viz. the "polymorphous perversity" of children), but in puberty they become organized and fused together under the priamcy of the genital organs.<ref>{{F}} p.1905d.</ref>
 
  
===Differences between Freud and Lacan===
+
----
[[Lacan]] emphasizes the partial nature of all [[drive]]s, but differs from [[Freud]] on two points:
 
  
# [[Lacan]] rejects the idea that the partial drives can ever attain any complete organization or fusion, aruging that the priamcy of the genital zone, if achieved, is always a highly precarious affair.
 
  
: He thus challenges the notion, put forward by some psychoanalysts after [[Freud]], of a genital drive in which the partial drives are completely integrated in a harmonious relation.
+
The model of the Freudian drive is libido - sexual energy - or what is also translated as 'wish' or 'desire'. According to Laplanche and Leclaire, it is the introduction of the drive into the sphere of need that marks the distinction between a need and desire: 'the drive introduces into the sphere of need an
  
# [[Lacan]] argues that the [[drive]]s are partial, not in the sense that thy are parts of a whole (a 'genital drive'), but in the sense that they only represent sexuality partially; they do not represent the reproductive function of sexuality but only the dimension of enjoyment.<ref>{{S11}} p.204</ref>
 
  
 +
----
  
===The Four Partial Drives===
+
trieb tends to be trasnalted as drive, as this is the closest equivalent to the french ''pulsion''.
[[Lacan]] identifies four partial drives: the [[drive|oral drive]], the [[drive|anal drive]], the [[drive|scopic drive]], and the [[drive|invocatory drive]].
 
  
Each of these [[drive]]s is specified by a different [[partial object]] and a different [[erogenous zone]].
+
----
  
The first two [[drive]]s relate to [[demand]], whereas the second pair relate to [[desire]].
 
  
{| style="width:75%; height:200px" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"
 
|+ '''[[:Image:Lacan-tablepartialdrives.jpg|Table of partial drives]]'''<BR>
 
! align="center" |  !! align="center" | PARTIAL DRIVE !! align="center" | EROGENOUS ZONE !! align="center" | PARTIAL OBJECT !! align="center" | VERB
 
|-
 
| align="center" | D
 
| align="center" | [[Oral]] [[drive]] || align="center" | [[Erogenous zone|Lips]] || align="center" | [[Partial object|Breast]] || align="center" | To suck
 
|-
 
| align="center" | D
 
| align="center" | [[Anal]] [[drive]] || align="center" | [[Erogenous zone|Anus]] || align="center" | [[Partial object|Faeces]] || align="center" | To shit
 
|-
 
| align="center" | d
 
| align="center" | [[Scopic]] [[drive]] || align="center" | [[Erogenous zone|Eyes]] || align="center" | [[Partial object|Gaze]] || align="center" | To see
 
|-
 
| align="center" | d
 
| align="center" | [[Invocatory]] [[drive]] || align="center" | [[Erogenous zone|Ears]] || align="center" | [[Partial object|Voice]] || align="center" | To hear
 
|}
 
  
  
==The Lacanian Matheme for the Drive==
+
The [[drive]]
In 1957, in the context of the [[graph of desire]], [[Lacan]] proposes the formula ('''S <> D''') as the [[matheme]] for the [[drive]].
 
  
This formula is to be read: the [[bar]]ed [[subject]] in relation to [[demand]], the fading of the [[subject]] before the insistence of a [[demand]] that persists without any [[conscious]] [[intention]] to sustain it.
+
or [[instinct]] as it is usually translated in English
 
 
 
 
==The Dualism of the Drives==
 
===Sigmund Freud: Life and Death===
 
Throughout the various reformulations of drive-theory in [[Freud]]'s work, one constant feature is a basic dualism.
 
 
 
At first this dualism was conceived in terms of an opposition between the [[drive|sexual drive]]s (''[[drive|Sexualtriebe]]'') on the one hand, and the [[drive|ego-drive]]s (''[[drive|Ichtriebe]]'') or [[drive|drives of self-preservation]] (''[[drive|Selbsterhaltungstriebe]]'') on the other.
 
 
 
This opposition was problematized by [[Freud]]'s growing realization, in the period 1914-20, that the [[drive|ego-drive]]s are themselves sexual.
 
 
 
He was thus led to reconceptualize the dualism of the [[drive]]s in terms of an opposition between the [[drive|life drive]]s (''[[drive|Lebenstriebe]]'') and the [[death drive]]s (''[[death drive|Todostriebe]]'').
 
 
 
===Jacques Lacan: Symbolic and Imaginary===
 
[[Lacan]] argues that it is important to retain [[Freud]]'s dualism, and rejects the monism of [[Jung]], who argued that all psychic forces could be reduced to one single concept of psychic energy.<ref>{{S1}} p.118-20</ref>
 
 
 
However, [[Lacan]] prefers to reconceptualize this dualism in terms of an opposition between the [[symbolic]] and the [[imaginary]], and not in terms of an oppositio between different kinds of [[drive]]s.
 
 
 
Thus, for [[Lacan]], all [[drive]]s are [[drive|sexual drive]]s, and every [[drive]] is a [[death drive]] since every [[drive]] is excessive, [[repetition|repetitive]], and ultimately destructive.<ref>{{Ec}} p.848</ref>
 
 
 
 
 
==Drive and Desire==
 
The [[drive]]s are closely related to [[desire]]; both originate in the field of the [[subject]], as opposed to the [[drive|genital drive]], which (if it exists) finds its form on the side of the [[Other]].<ref>{{S11}} p.189</ref>
 
 
 
However, the [[drive]] is not merely another name for [[desire]]: they are the partial aspects in which [desire]] is realized.
 
 
 
[[Desire]] is one and undivided, whereas the [[drive]]s are partial manifestations of [[desire]].
 
 
 
==See Also==
 
{{See}}
 
* [[Biology]]
 
* [[Death drive]]
 
* [[Demand]]
 
||
 
* [[Desire]]
 
* [[Instinct]]
 
* [[Need]]
 
||
 
* [[Pleasure principle]]
 
* [[Sexuality]]
 
* [[Subject]]
 
{{Also}}
 
 
 
==References==
 
<references/>
 
 
 
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
 
[[Category:Science]]
 
[[Category:Real]]
 
[[Category:Dictionary]]
 
[[Category:Concepts]]
 
[[Category:Terms]]
 
{{OK}}
 
 
 
__NOTOC__
 

Revision as of 02:26, 8 September 2006

THE DRIVE


THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN AN INSTINCT AND A DRIVE

It is crucial to acknowledge the distinction between an instinct and a drive.

An instinct designates a need that can be satisfied.

The examples Freud usually gives are those of hunger and thirst.

These needs give rise to an excitation within the body that can be satisfied and neutralized.

---

The drive, on the other hand, cannot be satisfied and is characterized by the constancy of the pressure it exerts on consciousness.

Translation

The Standard Edition of the works of Freud fails to reister the important distinction he makes between Instinkt and Trieb.


Freud normally uses the word Instinkt to refer to a relatively fixed set of behavioral patterns triggered by external stimuli; instincts are characteristic of animals, and are biologically defined.[1]

Unlike an instinct a drive or Trieb (from the verb tereiben, "to push") does not have a preordained goal and is characterized by the pressure it exerts within the psyche.

The aims or goals of drives ar eextremely variable and are strongly influenced by the history of the individual.

A drive is characterized by its source ( a physical stimulus or erogenous zone), its aim (the elimination of the tension caused by stimulation) and its object (anything that enables it to fulfil its aim).

Freud's theory of drives is dualistic, and a distinction is made beween ego-drives , whcih are directed towards self-preservation, and sexual drives.

In his later work, Freud introduces a further distinction between life-drives and the death drive.







The model of the Freudian drive is libido - sexual energy - or what is also translated as 'wish' or 'desire'. According to Laplanche and Leclaire, it is the introduction of the drive into the sphere of need that marks the distinction between a need and desire: 'the drive introduces into the sphere of need an



trieb tends to be trasnalted as drive, as this is the closest equivalent to the french pulsion.




The drive

or instinct as it is usually translated in English

  1. Freud, Sigmund. (1915a) "Instincts and their Vicissitudes." SE XIV; Penguin Freud Library XI