Skip to main content

Desire


Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
- Lao Tzu

"Lacan states that desire itself, and with it, sexual desire, can only exist by virtue of its alienation. Freud describes how the baby can be observed to hallucinate the milk that has been withdrawn from it and the infant to play throwing-away games to overcome the trauma of its mother's necessary departures. Lacan uses these instances to show that the object that is longed for only comes into existence as an object when its lost to the baby.

Thus, only satisfaction that might subsequently be attained will always contain this loss within it. Lacan refers to this dimension as 'desire'. The baby's need can be met, it's demands responded to, but its desire only exists because of the initial failure of satisfaction. Desire persists as an effect of a primordial absence and it therefore indicates that, in this area, there is something fundamentally impossible about satisfaction itself." pg. 6 Feminist Sexuality Jacques Lacan and the ecole freudienne

“To whom could I put this question (with any hope of an answer)? Does being able to live without someone you loved mean you loved her less than you thought...?”
― Roland Barthes


"After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Just because it perished?"
Edna St. Vincent Millay Passer Mortuus Est
"(...) It is precisely because desire is articulated that it is not articulable" (p.335).

"The fact that desire is not articulable may be clear to us because we already worked on the idea of desire being that effect of the demand that demand itself cannot recapture. Necessarily, desire will always imply a field that is beyond any demand. This justifies the fact that in the analytic practice with neurotics it is not possible for desire not to be there. Lacan is particularly subtle when he states that, regarding desire's rejection, a neurotic subject can only go as far as "to desire not to desire". We call desire then, the structural effect of demand over need, which is not recoverable through demand, but which has to be distinguished from any " I desire x object".

p. 71-2 The Graph of Desire Using the Work of Jacques Lacan by Eidelzstein







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

on becoming the black bird and embracing wabi sabi

I fell asleep with a case of scopophilia- which I had just learned means the overwhelming desire to look.  Seattle lay in the haze of the horizon.  I need just wait. The amount of books packed in my carry on, ridiculous, yet nothing but enlightening.  I was time travelling alone, for an extended trip, with a new identity. The glow of the sun began it's blazing ascent, first touching the clouds, then the wing outside my window, and finally resting on my sleeping neighbor's face.  Through the crack in the window clouds fluttered near me, if only they could touch my face.  I cried. Silently.  As if baptized in my own tears, a new day began.  With great welcome Emily Dickinson whispered into my ear ..... " To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, one clover, and one bee, and revery. The revery alone will do, if bees are few."  And so I learned the theme of my trip. REVERIE :  a daydream, a delirium, th...
2 comments
Read more

i have decided on a profession

After careful consideration, I have decided to teach myself how to fix typewriters. I know where to find a repair manual and need only find the the correct tools. I plan on becoming the mid west typewriter specialist. Finding, fixing, and selling. or giving. If you really need one, I will probably give you one. If you really love it, I will probably take your picture with it before you two gallop off into the sunshine. Another happy customer.
4 comments
Read more

Trash Can Annie's. Where dreams come alive.

I am lucky enough to be surrounded by vintage objects daily. I'm privileged in that way. I caught a good break having a job I adore, with people I adore.  I am always secretly hoping to stumble on under appreciated treasure for my enjoyment when I am out and about. Like tap shoes in my size, for instance. Recently I had the greatest pleasure in venturing to Davenport, Iowa. First stop, Trash Can Annie's.  Conveniently and lucky for us, Ragged Records, a record store, is contained within the same building. Let that soak in. Vintage clothes and records...vintage clothes and records. Give yourself hours. I mean it. With Annie's comes one of my favorite ladies in the world, who I am honored to say, I kiss smack on the lips with, a dear heart, Laura Heath. She is not in these pictures as much as I would have liked. She was too busy teaching curious people about the objects in the store. Almost all of the clothes are individually tagged, often with year, or a n...
1 comment
Read more