48. As for this “realization” of lack, Lacan writes: “One could say that with the presence of
a curtain, that which is beyond it, as lack, tends to realize itself as an image. Absence is
painted on the veil” (ibid., p.15 5).
49. See, for example, Le séminaire livre X,p.12 0.
50. Of course, at the moment of privation we are dealing with a subject-to-come. Therefore
subjective destitution is, strictly speaking, valid only afterthe resolution of the Oedipus
complex.
51 .Le séminaire livre V,p. 188.
52. Ibid., p. 382. In “The Signification of the Phallus,” this formula is rendered as “desire is
neither the appetite for satisfaction [appétit de satisfaction], nor the demand for love, but the
difference that results from the subtraction of the first from the second” (Écrits: A Selection,
p. 287 ).
53. Ibid., p. 286 (my translation).
54 .Le séminaire livre V,p. 381 (emphasis added).
55. P. Guyomard, La jouissance du tragique(Paris: Aubier, 199 2), p. 23.
56 .Le séminaire livre V,p. 381.
57. Ibid., p. 382.
58. “The other great generic desire, that of hunger, is not represented [in the unconscious]”
(Écrits: A Selection,p. 142 ). I should point out that hunger is not represented in the uncon-
scious only if it is considered independently ofsexual desire.
59 .Le séminaire livre V,p. 383.
60. Lacan spells this out just before providing his audience with the formula of desire (ibid.,
p. 382 ; emphasis added). The formula deals with puredesire.
61. Ibid. Lacan is tacitly using three different and logically consecutive formulas: ( 1 ) demand
for love =demand −necessity of need; ( 2 ) “impure” desire, i.e. desire +drive, =(pre-
Oedipal) demand for love +(conscious and, above all, unconscious) necessity of need;
( 3 ) “pure” desire =(post-Oedipal) demand for love (i.e. “impure” desire) −(conscious
and, above all, unconscious) necessity of need.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid., p. 252.
64. Ibid., p. 359.
65. Ibid., p. 344.
66. Ibid., p. 382.
67. “How could we desire anything if we were not to borrow the raw material from our
needs?” (ibid.).
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid., p. 330.
70. See Seminar VI, lesson of May 13 , 1959.notes to pages 150–158