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{{Top}}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]].

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.

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.

[[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.

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

In this circut, the [[drive]] originates in an [[erogenous zone]].

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

The first of these two times (active and reflexive voices) are autoerotic; they lack a [[subject]].

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).

===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.

# [[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>

{| style="width:75%; height:200px" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" align="center"

! align="center" | !! align="center" | PARTIAL DRIVE !! align="center" | EROGENOUS ZONE !! align="center" | 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.

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]]'').

[[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.

==Drive and Desire==

==See Also==

* [[Biology]]

* [[Death drive]]

* [[Desire]]

* [[Instinct]]

* [[Pleasure principle]]

* [[Sexuality]]

* [[Subject]]

==References==

<references/>

[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]

[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]

[[Category:Dictionary]]

[[Category:Concepts]]

[[Category:Terms]]

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