ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide an in-depth reading of obsessional desire as treated in Seminar V. Lacan defines obsessional desire as marked by a profound contradiction and as eventually an impasse. On the one hand, the obsessional looks for his desire in a beyond that corresponds with desire as such. On the other hand, this very movement is inextricable from an attempted destruction of the Other and, more specifically, of his desire. The obsessional can thus only subjectivise himself as “a Tantalus”, condemned to eternal non-satisfaction all the more satisfaction appears to be within his grasp. The chapter shows how, for Lacan, the analyst should always bear in mind this general contradiction when, in directing the cure, he observes the phenomenology of obsessional desire and its revolving around a set of recurrent destructive behaviours. Lacan’s discussion centres on four ordinary and readily observable phenomena: the obsessional’s overall abiding by the practical imperative “Do not do to others what you would not wish to be done to yourself”; the mutual implication of his continuous asking for permission and having it refused; the performance aspect of the obsessional’s activities, that is, his exploits; and the ultimate proof he requests to corroborate an otherwise temporary and occasional passionate love.
