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 {{Top}}| align="[[right]]" style="margin-left:10px;line-height:2.0em;text-align:justify;background-color:#fcfcfc;border:1px solid #aaa" | [[French]]: ''[[pulsion]]''; |-| [[German]]: ''[[Trieb{{Bottom}} 

[[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]].

[[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]].

[[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>

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|the real ]] source of [[enjoyment]] is the [[repetition|repetitive movement]] of this closed circuit.

It is a thoroughly [[culture|cultural]] and [[symbolic]] [[construct]].

[[Lacan]] thus empties the concept of the [[drive]] of the lingering references in [[Freud]]'s [[work ]] to energetics and hydraulics.

This circuit is [[structured ]] by the [[three ]] [[grammatical ]] voices.

# The [[active ]] [[voice ]] (e.g. to see)

# The [[passive ]] voice (e.g. to be seen)

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|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."

The circuit of the [[drive]] is the only way for the [[subject]] to [[transgress ]] the [[pleasure principle]].

[[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>

[[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.

# [[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>

[[Lacan]] [[identifies ]] four partial drives: the [[drive|oral drive]], the [[drive|anal drive]], the [[drive|scopic drive]], and the [[drive|invocatory drive]].

! align="center" | !! align="center" | [[Partial drive| PARTIAL DRIVE ]] !! align="center" | EROGENOUS ZONE !! align="center" | [[Partial Object| PARTIAL OBJECT ]] !! align="center" | VERB

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.

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.

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|TodostriebeTodestriebe]]'').

[[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 opposition between different kinds of [[drive]]s.

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.