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.


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