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In his [[seminar ]] on The Four Fundamental [[Concepts ]] of [[Psychoanalysis ]] (1964), Jacques [[Lacan ]] reread [[Freud]]'s essay "[[Drives ]] and their Vicissitudes" (1915c) in [[order ]] to emphasize that the four components of the drive—pressure, [[object]], aim, and source—are not [[natural ]] phenomena: the [[drive ]] is a montage.

The constancy of the drive's pressure differentiates it from vital [[needs]], which vary according to their own rhythms (Lacan, p. 171). Thus hunger is not the same as the [[oral ]] drive. [[Satisfaction ]] does not consist in fulfilling a [[need]], but in completing a circuit of [[three ]] [[stages]]. The "mouth that is involved in the drive," Lacan stated, "is not [[satisfied ]] by food" (p. 167). The drive begins at an [[erogenous zone]], and then makes a circuit around the object [[cause ]] of [[desire]], the [[object a]]. Thus Lacan saw drives as distinct from vital needs.

Lacan reserved the term "drive" for the [[sexual ]] drives. [[Instincts ]] of [[self]]-preservation—the Ichtriebe, Freud's ego-drives—were a function of [[narcissism]]. The [[subject ]] of the drive emerged once the three stages of the drive's circuit were completed. Along with the [[active ]] and reflexive stages, Lacan emphasized the importance of a [[third ]] [[stage]], in which, as Freud had said, a new subject would appear. This new subject is an [[other]]. When the "I" is, like an object, subjected to this other, it may [[experience ]] [[pain ]] and become a subject itself. It will seek to attach itself to the [[enjoyment ]] of this other, which from then on plays the [[role ]] of [[real ]] Other. Only by completing the circuit of the drive does the subject come into contact with the [[dimension ]] of the Other as the treasure trove of the [[signifiers]]. For Lacan, the [[concept ]] of the drive is the pivot between the [[body]], enjoyment, and [[language]].

[[Clinical ]] [[work ]] allows us to see [[infantile ]] [[autism ]] as the result of a failure at the third stage in the circuit of the drive.

See also: [[Castration ]] of the subject; [[Demand]]; Drive; [[Erotogenicity]]; [[Fantasy]], [[formula ]] of; [[Jouissance ]] (Lacan); Perceptual [[identity]]; [[Real, the (Lacan)]]; Subject; [[Topology]].[[Bibliography]]