Ética del Psicoanálisis, un principio no imperativo

Abstract

In the present work, we are committed to introducing the question of desire, its status in the analytic clinic, and its value with respect to a time marked by the imperative to jouissance and the bureaucracy of the self. To do this, the resonances of the phrase “take the desire to the letter” (Lacan, 1958 [2010], p. 590), as an ethical principle of orientation in the direction of analytical healing, will be analyzed; and its counterpoint with the notion of «pure desire» associated with Sophocles’ tragedy of «Antígona», raised by Lacan (1959-1960 [2007])  in his Seminar 7. Finally, from the tension between both phrases, a fundamental warning will be developed that serves as a compass, namely that to orient oneself by desire, is not, however, to make it an imperative.