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The French word ''[[jouissance]]'' means basically "[[enjoyment]]", but it has a sexual connotation (i.e. 'orgasm') lacking in the English word "[[enjoyment", and is therefore left untranslated in most English editions of [[Lacan]].
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The term does not appear in [[Lacan]]'s work until 1953, but even then it is not particularly salient.<ref>{{E}} p.42, 87</ref>
In the seminars of 1953-4 and 1954-5 [[Lacan]] uses the term occasionally, usually in the context of the [[Hegel]]ian [[dialectic]] of the [[master]] and the slave: the slav eis forced to work to provide objects for the master's enjoyment (''jouissance'').<ref>{{S1}} p.223; {{S2}} p.269</ref>
Upt to 1957, then, the term seems to mean no more than the enjoyable sensation that accompanies the [[satisfaction]] of a [[biological]] [[need]] such as hunger.<ref>{{S4}} p.125</ref>
Soon after, the sexual connotations become more apparent;; in 1957, [[Lacan]] uses the term to refer to the enjoyment of a sexual object,<ref>{{Ec}} p.453</ref> and to the pleasures of masturbation.<ref>{{S4}} p.241</ref>, and in 1958 he makes explicit sense of ''[[jouissance]]'' as orgasm.<ref>{{Ec}} p.727</ref>
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It is only in 1960 that [[Lacan]] develops his classic opposition between ''jouissance'' and pleasure,