ABSTRACT
Widlocher’s revision has subsumed a good many of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. The concept of the drive is targeted in particular. Widlocher sets out to efface the differences between the drive and instinct. The concept of drive is, however, distinct from that of instinct, first and foremost by dint of the fact that the drive specifies what is human whilst instinct is proper to the animal realm. Animal organisms are endowed with an innate knowledge. In man, the drives are not only a form of knowledge, they are also a form of truth. Freud made his theory of repression revolve around anxiety. For Freud and Lacan, the practice and the theory of psychoanalysis are inseparable. Mindful as he was of consequences, each obstacle that Freud met in his practice led him to reformulate his theory. Similarly, Lacan’s teaching is none other than a theory of analytic practice.
