Graph of desire

The Graph of desire (French: graphe du désir) is a conceptual tool in Lacanianism.

wikipedia/en/Graph%20of%20desire

Lacan’s Graph of Desire is a series of four interconnected diagrams illustrating how a subject is formed and how desire emerges within the symbolic order of language and the Other. The graphs use a schematic progression to show the unconscious’s operation through the mechanisms of metaphor and metonymy, the subject’s relationship to signifiers, and the fundamental lack that drives desire, which is a response to the Other’s discourse and the social world.

Key Concepts of the Graph

• Four Graphs: The “Graph of Desire” actually refers to a series of four graphs, each a pedagogical development from the previous one, to elaborate on the complexity of the subject.
• The Subject: In Lacanian theory, the subject is not the individual or ego but a function of language, a position defined by its relation to signifiers, not a fixed entity.
• The Unconscious: The graph illustrates the unconscious as structured like a language, operating through linguistic mechanisms such as metaphor and metonymy.
• The Signifying Chain: A horizontal line represents the “signifying chain” (S to S’) of language, where signifiers (words or symbols) are linked in a chain.
• The Other: The backward-looping line represents the “Other”—the realm of the big Other, the unconscious, and the social discourse that conditions the subject.
• The Quilting Point: The intersection points of the lines are conceptualized as “quilting points,” where an element of the signifying chain is “stitched” to another to give the subject a momentary sense of meaning or coherence.

How Desire Emerges

1. From Need to Demand: The process begins with pressure of need, which is then articulated through the demand made to the Other.
2. Interaction with the Other: The child’s expression of need and demand interacts with the Other’s discourse (the signifying chain).
3. S(a) and the Object a: The subject is left with a lack (a lack of being), which is symbolized by the barred S (S̷). Desire emerges in relation to the object of desire, the “object petit a” (a), which is not a concrete thing but the object that stands in for the fundamental lack.
4. The Subject’s Desire: Desire, for Lacan, is ultimately a desire to be the object of the Other’s desire, a fundamental lack that motivates the subject’s relationship with the world.

Significance

• The graph is a pedagogical tool, a schematic representation to guide understanding of the complex theories presented in essays like “The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious”.
• It provides a framework for understanding how the subject’s identity, desire, and interaction with the world are shaped by language, the unconscious, and the social Other. [1, 2]