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Need
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[[Lacan]] develops an important distinction between three terms: [[need]], [[demand]] and [[desire]]. In the context of this distinction, 'need' comes close to what [[Freud]] referred to as [[instinct]] (''Instinkt''); that is, a purely [[biology|biological]] concept opposed to the realm of the [[drive]] (''Trieb''). The [[child]], in order to satisfy his or her [[need]]s, must articulate his or her [[need]]s in [[language]]; in other words, the [[child]] must articulate his or her [[need]]s in a '[[demand]]'. However, every [[demand]] is not only an articulation of [[need]] but also an (unconditional) [[demand]] for [[love]]. The [[other]] to whom the [[demand]] is addressed (the [[mother]]) can and may supply the [[object]] which [[satisfaction|satisfies]] the [[child]]'s [[need]], she is never in a position to answer the [[demand]] for [[love]] unconditionally, because she too is [[division|divided]]. The result of this [[split]] between [[need]] and [[demand]] is an insatiable leftover, which is [[desire]] itself. [[Need]] is thus an intermittent tension which arises for purely organic reasons and which is discharged entirely by the specific action corresponding ot the particular [[need]] in question.[[Desire]], on the other hand, is a constant force which can never be satisfied, the constant 'pressure' which underlies the [[drive]]s. CONTINUED
==See Also==
