Drive

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Sigmund Freud

Freud argued that sexuality is composed of a number of partial drives (Ger. Partieltrieb) such as the oral drive and the anal drive, each specified by a different source (a different erotogenic zone).

At first these component drives function anarchically and independently (viz. the 'polymorphous perversity' of children), but in puberty they become organised and fused together under the primacy of the genital organs.[1]

Instinctual (pre-lingual) bodily impulses or instincts, which Freud ultimately decided could be reduced to two primary drives: 1) the life drives (both the pleasure principle and the reality principle); and 2) the death drive, which Freud saw as even more primal than the life drives.

Human Sexuality

Sigmund Freud's concept of the drive (Trieb, pulsion) is central to his theory of human sexuality.

According to Freud, human sexuality is not regulated by instincts but by drives.

Instincts are relatively fixed and innate.

Instinct denotes a mythical pre-linguistic need.

Drives are variable, and develop in ways that are contingent on the life history of the subject.

Drive is separate from the realm of biology.

The drive does not refer to "some ultimate given, something archaic, primordial."[2]

The drive is a thoroughly cultural and symbolic construct.

Jacques Lacan

Lacan follows Freud's distinction between drive (Trieb and instinct (Instinkt).[3]


THE MOVEMENT OF DRIVE

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 incorporates the four elements of the drive in his theory of the drive's 'circuit'.

In this circuit, the drive originates in an erogenous zone, circles round the object, and then returns to the erogenous zone.


Drive, unlike biological needs, can never be satisfied. Drives do not aim at an object but rather circle perpetually round it.

Lacan argues that the purpose of the drive is not to reach a goal (a final destination) but to follow its aim (the way itself), which is to circle round the object.[4]

The function of the drive is not to attain full satisfaction but to return to its circular path.

The real source of enjoyment is the repetitive movement of this closed circuit.

Partial

Lacan argues that the drives are partial.

The drives are partial (in that they represent sexuality partially) (not in the sense that they are parts of a whole).

Drives do not represent the reproductive function of sexuality (but only the dimension of enjoyment).[5]

Differences

Lacan emphasizes the partial nature of all drives, but differs from Freud on two points.

Lacan rejects the idea that the partial drives can ever attain any complete organisation or fusion, arguing that the primacy 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 fashion.


Four Drives

Lacan identifies four partial drives:

Each of these drives is specified by a different partial object and a different erogenous zone.


Drive and Desire

the drive is not merely another name for desire: they are the partial aspects in which desire is realised.

Desire is one and undivided, whereas the drives are partial manifestations of desire.


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


Dualism

Throughout the various reformulations of drive-theory in Freud's work, one constant feature is a basic dualism.

He conceived the dualism of the drives in terms of an opposition between the life drives (Lebenstriebe) and the death drives (Todestriebe).


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.[6]

However, Lacan prefers to reconceptualise this dualism in terms of an opposition between the symbolic and the imaginary, and not in terms of an opposition between different kinds of drives.

Thus, for Lacan, all drives are sexual drives, and every drive is a death drive. Since every drive is excessive, repetitive, and ultimately destructive.[7]



Formula

In 1957, in the context of the graph of desire, Lacan proposes the formula (SO D) as the matheme for the drive.

This formula is to be read: the barred 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.

Activity

the drive is always essentially active, which is why Lacan writes 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.[8]


See Also

References

  1. ↑ Freud, 1905d
  2. ↑ Template:Sll p. 162
  3. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.301
  4. ↑ Sll, 168
  5. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p.204
  6. ↑ (Sl, l18-20).
  7. ↑ (Ec,848)
  8. ↑ Sll, 200
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