One of Lacan’s most oft-repeated formulas is: ‘man’s desire is the desire of the Other’. (Seminar 11). This can be understood in many complementary ways, of which the following are the most important.
One of Lacan’s most oft-repeated formulas is: ‘man’s desire is the desire of the Other’. (Seminar 11). This can be understood in many complementary ways, of which the following are the most important.
1. Desire is essentially ‘desire of the Other’s desire’, which means both desire to be the object of another’s desire, and desire for recognition by another. Lacan takes this idea from Hegel, via Kojève, who states:
Desire is human only if the one desires, not the body, but the Desire of the other...that is to say, if he wants to be ‘desired’ or ‘loved’, or, rather, ‘recognised’ in his human value.... In other words, all human, anthropogenetic Desire...is, finally, a function of the desire for ‘recognition’.
Kojève goes on to argue (still following Hegel) that in order to achieve the desired recognition, the subject must risk his own life in a struggle for pure prestige. That desire is essentially desire to be the object of another’s desire is clearly illustrated in the first ‘time’ of the Oedipus complex, when the subject desires to be the phallus for the mother.
Evans, Dylan. An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Routledge. 1996.
