Graph of desire
| French: graphe du désir |
The "graph of desire" is a topographical representation - schema or model - of the structure of desire.
The graph of desire is a conceptual tool from the psychoanalytic theory of Jacques Lacan.
The graph of desire is a topological representation of the structure of desire.
The graph of desire is a topological schema of the structure of the constitution of the human subject and its desire.
History
The graph of desire is a schema, or model, that Jacques Lacan began developing in his seminar on The Formations of the Unconscious (1957-58).[1]
Lacan first develops the graph of desire in the seminar of 1957-8 in order to illustrate the psychoanalytic theory of jokes.[2]
The graph reappears in some of the following seminars, but then all but disappears from Lacan's work.
It achieved its definitive form in his essay "The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious."[3]
The graph appears in various forms, although the most well known form of it appears in "The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious."[4]
Development
Lacan builds up the graph of desire in four stages.
Its four successive stages represent the constitution of the human subject and his desire.
Nevertheless, Lacan never intended it to describe the genetic stages of a biological development.
Rather, it represents the "logical moments" of the birth of a speaking subject.
See Also
References
- ↑ Jacques Lacan:Bibliography The Formations of the Unconscious.
- ↑ Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious," 1905. SE VIII.
- ↑ Jacques Lacan:Bibliography "The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious." 1960
- ↑ Lacan, Jacques. "Subversion du sujet et dialectique du désir dans l'inconscient freudien." Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p.793-827. "The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious." Ecrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. Bruce Fink. London: Tavistock. 1977. New York: W. W. Norton. 2004. p.292-325
