ABSTRACT
On Freud’s “Trieb” and the Psychoanalyst’s Desire is the shortest of Lacan’s écrits, and started life as a presentation at the University of Rome in January 1964. It contains a series of condensed reflections on the difference between desire, instinct and the drive, as well as the role of the latter in the operations of clinical psychoanalysis. In dealing with these themes, the écrit lays out in embryonic form some of the arguments that would be developed in Lacan’s seminar The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, which commenced the same year. This chapter does several things: it places the écrit against the contextual backdrop of Lacan’s turbulent relationship with the International Psychoanalytical Association, demonstrates the relevance of key Freudian and Lacanian concepts such as libido, jouissance, and Name-of-the-Father to the central discussion, and considers the extent to which the écrit represents a break in Lacan’s work where discussions of desire are gradually supplanted by considerations of the drive and its operation.
