Desire (psychoanalysis)

Desire (psychoanalysis)

In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the term desire designates the impossible relation that a subject has with objet petit a. According to French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Jacques Lacan (1901 – 1981), desire proper (in contrast with demand) can never be fulfilled.

Theory

Lacan argues that desire first occurs during a "mirror phase" of a baby's development, when the baby sees an image of wholeness in a mirror which gives them a desire for that being. As a person matures, Lacan claims that they still feel separated from themselves by language, which is incomplete, and so a person continually strives to become whole. He uses the term "jouissance" to refer to the lost object or feeling of abscence which a person believes to be unobtainable.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Desire (emotion) — Desire is a sense of longing for a person or object or hoping for an outcome. Desire is the fire that sets action aflame. The same sense is expressed by emotions such as craving or hankering . When a person desires something or someone, their… …   Wikipedia

  • Desire — may refer to: Contents 1 Concepts 2 Music 2.1 Albums 2.2 …   Wikipedia

  • psychoanalysis - family, Freud, and unconscious —    by Alison Ross   Family   The family has a pivotal conceptual role within psychoanalytic theory; its primacy in psychoanalysis is neither limited to the bourgeois nuclear family nor the therapeutic practice of analysis that deals with it.… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • psychoanalysis - family, Freud, and unconscious —    by Alison Ross   Family   The family has a pivotal conceptual role within psychoanalytic theory; its primacy in psychoanalysis is neither limited to the bourgeois nuclear family nor the therapeutic practice of analysis that deals with it.… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • Desire (philosophy) — In philosophy, desire has been identified 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. Within the teachings of Buddhism, craving is …   Wikipedia

  • desire —    by Alison Ross    Desire is one of the central terms in Deleuze s philosophical lexicon. In his work with Guattari, Deleuze develops a definition of desire as positive and productive that supports the conception of life as material flows. In… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • desire —    by Alison Ross    Desire is one of the central terms in Deleuze s philosophical lexicon. In his work with Guattari, Deleuze develops a definition of desire as positive and productive that supports the conception of life as material flows. In… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • psychoanalysis + political theory —    by Janell Watson   As its title implies, Capitalism and Schizophrenia simultaneously engages radical political theory and psychoanalytic theory. A disciplinary combination of this kind is not unusual, Freud too used his own concepts and… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • psychoanalysis + political theory —    by Janell Watson   As its title implies, Capitalism and Schizophrenia simultaneously engages radical political theory and psychoanalytic theory. A disciplinary combination of this kind is not unusual, Freud too used his own concepts and… …   The Deleuze dictionary

  • psychoanalysis — A psychological theory and a method of treatment of psychological disorders, developed initially by Sigmund Freud , and extended in a variety of ways by later psychoanalysts. James A. C. Brown s Freud and the Post Freudians (1964) is still a good …   Dictionary of sociology

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”