In
Jacques Lacan's
psychoanalytic philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...
, lack (french: manque) is a concept that is always related to
desire. In his seminar ''Le transfert'' (1960–61) he states that lack is what causes desire to arise.
Types of lack
Lacan first designated a lack of
being: what is desired is being itself. "Desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but lack of being whereby the being exists" (Seminar: ''
''). In "The Direction of the Treatment and the Principles of Its Power" (''Écrits'') Lacan argues that desire is the
metonymy
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name ...
of the lack of being (''manque à être''): the
subject's lack of being is at the heart of the analytic experience and the very field in which the
neurotic's passion is deployed. In "Guiding Remarks for a Convention on Feminine Sexuality" Lacan contrasts the lack of being related to desire with the lack of having (''manque à avoir'') which he relates to
demand.
Starting in his seminar ''La relation d'objet'', Lacan distinguishes between three kinds of lack, according to the nature of the object which is lacking. The first one is
Symbolic
Symbolic may refer to:
* Symbol, something that represents an idea, a process, or a physical entity
Mathematics, logic, and computing
* Symbolic computation, a scientific area concerned with computing with mathematical formulas
* Symbolic dynam ...
Castration
Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which an individual loses use of the testicles: the male gonad. Surgical castration is bilateral orchiectomy (excision of both testicles), while chemical castration uses pharm ...
and its object related is the
Imaginary Phallus
A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic.
Any object that symbolically—or, more precise ...
; the second one is Imaginary Frustration and its object related is the Real Breast; the third kind of lack is Real Privation and its object related is the Symbolic Phallus. The three corresponding agents are the Real Father, the Symbolic Mother, and the Imaginary Father. Of these three forms of lack, castration is the most important from the perspective of the cure.
It is in ''La relation d'objet'' that Lacan introduces the algebraic symbol for the barred
Other, and lack comes to designate the lack of the signifier in the Other. Then the relation of the subject to the lack of the signifier in the Other, designates the signifier of a lack in the Other. No matter how many
signifiers one adds to the signifying chain, the chain is always incomplete, it always lacks the signifier that could complete it. This missing signifier is then constitutive of the subject.
Lack of phallus
The symbolic version of the phallus, a phallic symbol is meant to represent male generative powers. According to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, while males possess a penis, no one can possess the symbolic phallus. Jacques Lacan's ''Écrits'' includes an essay titled ''The Signification of the Phallus'' which articulates the difference between "being" and "having" the phallus. Men are positioned as men insofar as they are seen to have the phallus. Women, not having the phallus, are seen to "be" the phallus. The symbolic phallus is the concept of being the ultimate man, and having this is compared to having the divine gift of God.
In
''Gender Trouble'' (1990),
Judith Butler
Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler b ...
explores Freud's and Lacan's discussions of the symbolic phallus by pointing out the connection between the phallus and the penis. She writes, "The law requires conformity to its own notion of 'nature'. It gains its legitimacy through the binary and asymmetrical naturalization of bodies in which the phallus, though clearly not identical to the penis, deploys the penis as its naturalized instrument and sign" (135). In ''Bodies that Matter'', she further explores the possibilities for the phallus in her discussion of the lesbian phallus. If, as she notes, Freud enumerates a set of analogies and substitutions that rhetorically affirm the fundamental transferability of the phallus from the penis elsewhere, then any number of other things might come to stand in for the phallus (62).
Criticism
In ''
Anti-Oedipus
''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe) is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first vol ...
'',
Gilles Deleuze and
Félix Guattari postulate that desire does not arise from lack, but rather is a productive force (''
desiring-production
Desiring-production (french: production désirante) is a term coined by the French thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in their book ''Anti-Oedipus'' (1972).
Overview
Deleuze and Guattari oppose the Freudian conception of the unconscious ...
)'' in itself.
See also
*
Demand
Sources and external links
Lacan Dot Com"How to Read Lacan" by Slavoj Zizeknbsp;– full version
Specific
{{Reflist
Psychoanalytic terminology
Jacques Lacan
Post-structuralism
Structuralism
Philosophy of sexuality