Lacan and Freud : beyond the pleasure principle

Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud‟s ideas are presented with specific emphasis on the themes presented in Freud‟s (1920a) Beyond the Pleasure Principle. Freud‟s Project for a Scientific Psychology (1950) provides important clues to describe the pleasure principle in terms of Quantity (Q), facilitations [Bahnung] and contactbarriers. Therefore, the implications of the pleasure principle relate greatly to 1) Freud‟s notion of the unconscious, 2) Lacan‟s explanation of das Ding, 3) the difference between jouissance and plaisir, and 4) the relationship between das Ding and the Law. Lacan‟s understanding of the death drive is consequently the culmination of all the topics mentioned and repeated throughout. Lacan‟s description of the death drive is twofold: firstly, the mechanical explanation of the pleasure principle, and secondly, how desire features within the pleasure principle. Lacan‟s description of the death drive encompasses libido, desire, economy, Linguistics, and the Oedipus complex, which illustrates why Freud‟s (1920) Beyond the Pleasure Principle is not only an important text in Freud‟s oeuvre, but also in Lacan‟s.