Table Of ContentBR(a)
A JOURNAL OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
#1 (1991) On The Drive
UMBR(a) #1,1997
Editor: Daniel G. Collins
Managing Editor: Cal Clements
Editorial Committee: Charlie Blal"emore
Kevin Costa.
Sue Feldman
Bradley Greenburg
Susan Varney
Andres Zlotsky
Facultlj Advisor Joan Copjec
Cover Art: Sam Gillespie
Special Thanks: The Graduate Student Association, Sub Board 1, Inc.,
The English Graduate Student Association, The Comparative
Literature Graduate Student Association, The Center for the
Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture (Joan Copjec), The English
Department (Ken Dauber), The Buffalo Theory Group (Andrew
Hewitt), The Samuel Clemens Chair (Leslie Fiedler), The Melodia
Jones Chair (Raymond Federman), The Eugenio Donato Chair
(Rodolphe Gasche), The Group for Discussion of the Freudian
Field, Ellie Ragland, Stephanie Collins, and Kirsten Stolte
Address for editorial and subscription enquiries:
Umbr(a)
Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture
409 Clements Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-4610
© Umbr(a) 1997 ISSN 1087-0830
UMBR(a) #1, 1997
Contents
Editorials
"Did anyone say anything new about the drive?" 7
Montage of the Drives 11
Joan Copjec
Essays
The Drive is Speech 15
Jacques-Alain Miller
Desire and the Drives 35
Bruce Fink
.Remark Concerning the Drive 53
James Glogowski
~w~ M
Juliet Flower McCannell
On the Drive 67
Daniel G. Collins
For a Political and Libidinal Economy on the Edge of the Second Millennium 81
Jean-Fran~ois Lyotard
Sexuation and the Drives 89
David Metzger
The Drives 99
Ellie Rag1and
The Satisfaction of Drives 105
Renata Saled
Drives ... The Narrative 111
Stuart Schneiderman
Lacan and Ethics and Adam and Eve 117
Robert Samuels
Freud's Concepts of Drive, Desire, and Nirvana 121
Raul Moncayo
The Elements of the Drvie 131
Charles Shepherdson
Desire: Drive Truth: Knowledge 147
Slavoj Zitek
The Jo uissance of Justice 153
Jane B. Malmo
Dualism and the Drive 159
Russell Grigg
Necessity is the Drive 165
Jacques Derrida
about
the drive
saying
something nw
EDITORIAL
"Did anyone say anything new about the drive?"
"Did anyone say anything new about the drive?"
This is the question we were asked by an interested party as we completed work
on this special issue devoted to that very topic.
What could we say? Did anyone say anything revolutionary or groundbreaking?
Did anyone say anything that would liberate the concept of the drive from the state of
desuetude into which it has fallen?
No.
No one said anything new about the drive.
But then again, our joint effort in bringing this publication into being is in itself
something new. This is, as far as we have been able to ascertain, the first collection of
papers on the drive.
We must wonder at the reasons for this neglect. The drive has always been with
us. We speak of driving cattle, driving cars, and driving wind and rain. And yet,
somehow, whenever the word is applied to human beings, it is assumed to be a
metaphor. Thus the dictionary can offer us only the weakest synonyms-'tendency',
'inclination', 'impetus', etc.
As the century began, this vague, metaphorical notion of drive entered the
vocabulary of psychology-and psychoanalysis. This introduction of a new term was
easy enough to achieve. Any behavior, X, could be described as the result of a "drive
to X." Under this generous system of nomenclature, drives multiplied.
And Freud saw that this was not good. In 1915, he published "Triebe und
Triebschicksale" to put an end to the seemingly infinite proliferation of drives. The drive,
UMBR(a) • 7
he insisted, must be a concept.
All, perhaps, might have been well. This was not the first time that Freud had
brought order to the confused thinking of his followers. But then, in 1920, he linked the
concept of the drive to death.
His audacious connection of death and drives, his concept of a drive to death,
fell victim to opposition and rejection-and eventually the indignity of indifference.
Freud's followers did not forget the drive. They just had other uses for it. It seemed, for a
time, that what Freud had first announced as a borderland concept linking body and
mind could be deployed so as to earn psychoanalysis the dignity of a genuine science.
Read Fenichel. Read Brenner. Read any of an entire generation of analysts who saw in the
drive the hope of a firm biological basis for psychoanalysis. Meanwhile the drive
continued, as always, to work in silence. Freud and his concept of a death drive were
vindicated by the events of a horrific century.
"Did anyone say anything new about the drive?"
It might be more appropriate to ask whether anyone in the psychoanalytic tribe
heeded the warning contained in the first paragraph of "Triebe und Triebschicksale." Was
not the attempt to chain psychoanalysis to science the very mistake Freud cautioned
against? Would we not make the same mistake if we were to assume that the drive exists
beyond language as a brute fact waiting to be grasped by ever more precise methods of
empirical investigation? Our task is rather to give a voice and a hearing to the drive in the
very act of speaking about it, for the drive is never closer than it is when someone asks
the question, "Did anyone say anything new about the drive?"
Who speaks ofthe drive today? None but a few patient readers who strive to free
Freud's concept from the pop-psychological notion with which it shares a name. We are
pleased to present the work of a few of those few.
"Did anyone say anything new about the drive?"
Yes. Each of our contributors has said something new about the drive, in the
sense that their "saying" makes a circuit around the drive-each trip around a saying
something new. Which is what happens when we make the drive itself our object.
8· UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a) UMBR(a)
