8. J. Lacan, Le séminaire livre X. L’angoisse, 1962–1963(Paris: Seuil, 2004 ), p.10 4.
9. See Seminar IX, lesson of December 20 , 19 61.
10. See, for example, J. Lacan, Écrits: A Selection(London: Tavistock, 1977 ), p. 316 ; J. Lacan, The
Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis(London: Hogarth Press and the
Institute of Psychoanalysis, 1977 ), p. 207.
11 .Écrits: A Selection,p. 316. S. Zˇizˇek efficaciously analyzes the various meanings of this for-
mula in For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor(London and New York:
Verso, 1991 ), pp.21‒27.
12 .Écrits: A Selection,p. 316.
13. See, for example Le séminaire livre X,p. 31.
14. See, for example, J. Lacan, Écrits(Paris: Seuil, 19 6 6), p. 848.
15. The signifier kills the undead Thing, and thus gives rise to the nonsignified of death, to
“that limit of the signified which is not reached by any human being.” In this sense, the
death drive should also plainly be understood as “the fact that we realize that life is
uncertain and ephemeral” (J. Lacan, Le séminaire livre IV. La relation d’objet, 1956–1957[Paris:
Seuil, 199 4], pp. 48 , 50 ).
16. Such a mythical birth of the Symbolic cannot be repeated at a universal level: neverthe-
less, it is repeated in the particular each time a child successfully resolves the Oedipus
complex, as well as each time an analysand traverses his fundamental fantasy and pro-
ceeds to a radical reconfiguration of his symbolic coordinates.
17. See J. Lacan, The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959–1960(London: Routledge,
199 2), p. 212.
18. Seminar IX, lesson of February 28 , 19 62.
19. Seminar VI, lesson of June 3 , 1959.
20. See, for example, The Seminar. Book VII,p. 90.
21. Recalcati points out that the conservative function of the death drive problematizes
Freud’s widely accepted—not least by Lacan himself—libidinal dualism (M. Recalcati,
L’universale e il singolare: Lacan e l’al di là del principio di piacere[Milan: Marcos y Marcos, 199 6],
p. 28 ). For my part, I am not completely convinced that this conservative function of
the death drive really applies to Freud: too many issues remain indeterminate in Freud’s
own account of this notion.... It is doubtless the case, however, that such a Lacanian
interpretation of the death drive undermines Lacan’s own alleged fidelity to Freud’s
dualism, and paves the way for a form of monism that would distinguish itself from the
ingenuousness of Jung’s unitary life energy.
22. See, for example The Seminar. Book XI,p.16 8.
23. If on the one hand, Lacan defines jouissanceas the (partial) “satisfaction of the drive” (The
Seminar. Book VII,p. 209 ), on the other, the (partial) drive itself should be understood as
the (partial) satisfaction of desire.
24. S. Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle,in SE, XVIII, p. 63.
25. J. Laplanche and J.-B. Pontalis, The Language of Psychoanalysis(London: Karnac Books, 1988 ),
p. 102.notes to pages 141–149