ABSTRACT
In 1959–1960, the theme of J. Lacan's seminar was the ethics of psychoanalysis. In 1956–1957, Lacan gave a seminar on the theme of "object relations", although he immediately criticised the term object relation itself. Lacan's criticism refers probably to the content of the article on object relations which M. Bouvet had published. He articulates the way in which the object is marked by the exclusion of das Ding. Only after Lacan returned to the study of the Freudian concept of the drive was it reinstituted as the major concept of the psychoanalytic field. S. Freud distinguished two phases of "pre-genital organisation": one is the oral and the second is the anal-sadistic phase. The notion of libidinal phase designates a phase of sexual development of the child characterised by a particular organisation of the libido, governed either by the predominance of one erotogenic zone or by a certain mode of relation or interaction with the object.
