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In philosophy, desire has been identied as a philosophical problem since Antiquity. In Plato's The Republic,
Socrates argues that individual desires must be postponed
in the name of the higher ideal.
HISTORY
1.4 Psychoanalysis
Jacques Lacan's dsir follows Freuds concept of Wunsch and it is central to Lacanian theories. For the aim
of the talking curepsychoanalysisis precisely to lead
the patient to uncover the truth about their desire, but this
is only possible if that desire is articulated, or spoken.[8]
Lacan said that it is only once it is formulated, named
in the presence of the other, that desire appears in the
On Moores view, Mills theory is too non-specic as to full sense of the term.[9] That the subject should come
the objects of desire. Moore provides the following ex- to recognize and to name his/her desire, that is the efample:
cacious action of analysis. But it is not a question of
recognizing something which would be entirely given. In
For instance, granted that, when I desire
naming it, the subject creates, brings forth, a new presmy glass of port wine, I have also an idea of
ence in the world.[10] "[W]hat is important is to teach the
the pleasure I expect from it, plainly that pleasubject to name, to articulate, to bring desire into exissure cannot be the only object of my desire;
tence. Now, although the truth about desire is somehow
the port wine must be included in my object,
present in discourse, discourse can never articulate the
else I might be led by my desire to take wormwhole truth about desire: whenever discourse attempts to
wood instead of wine . . . If the desire is to
articulate desire, there is always a leftover, a surplus.[8]
take a denite direction, it is absolutely necIn The Signication of the Phallus Lacan distinguishes deessary that the idea of the object, from which
sire from need and demand. Need is a biological instinct
the pleasure is expected, should also be present
that is articulated in demand, yet demand has a double
[5]
and should control my activity.
function, on one hand it articulates need and on the other
acts as a demand for love. So, even after the need articuFor Charles Fourier, following desires (like passions or lated in demand is satised, the demand for love remains
in Fouriers own words 'attractions) is a means to attain unsatised and this leftover is desire.[11] For Lacan deharmony.
sire is neither the appetite for satisfaction nor the demand
for love, but the dierence that results from the subtraction of the rst from the second (article cited). Desire
1.3 Eastern philosophies
then is the surplus produced by the articulation of need
Within the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama in demand. Lacan adds that desire begins to take shape
(Buddhism), craving is thought to be the cause of in the margin in which demand becomes separated from
all suering that one experiences in human existence. need. Hence desire can never be satised, or as Slavoj
The extinction of this craving leads one to ultimate iek puts it desires raison d'tre is not to realize its goal,
happiness, or Nirvana. Nirvana means cessation, to nd full satisfaction, but to reproduce itself as desire.
extinction (of suering) or extinguished, quieted,
calmed";[6] it is also known as Awakening or Enlightenment in the West. The Four Noble Truths were
the rst teaching of Gautama Buddha after attaining
Nirvana. They state that suering is an inevitable part
of life as we know it. The cause of this suering is
attachment to, or craving for worldly pleasures of all
kinds and clinging to this very existence, our "self" and
the things or people wedue to our delusionsdeem
the cause of our respective happiness or unhappiness.
The suering ends when the craving and desire ends, or
See also
Desire (emotion)
Anti-Oedipus
References
Further reading
Middendorf Ulrike, Resexualizing the desexualized.
The language of desire and erotic love in the classic
of odes, Fabrizio Serra Editore.
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