Comparative Literature and Culture 2125A/B Chapter Notes -Psychosexual Development, Jouissance, The Symbolic
27 Jan 2013
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Rethinking deisre: the objet petit a in lacanian theory kirshner. The ephermeral, unlocalizable property of an object that makes it especially desirable. Desire can be defined by its infantile origins as the remainder when satisfaction of physiological needs is subtracted from the child"s demands for its mother"s attention. Because this promise is not attached to any clearly realizable or realistic goal, desire, perhaps like infantile sexuality itself, cannot be fully satisfied. Although intrinsic to the human condition, the process of desiring can be problematic and even totally blocked for many people. The symbolic order can be briefly defined as the collection of codes and distinctions embodied in language and culture, and lacan insists that human subjectivity can be sustained only within the limits of this framework. What he calls the real remains outside of symbolization, inaccessible to thought.
