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As early as 1905, Freud's thought brings him into conflict with not just the moralizing common sense of his contemporaries, but with some of the most basic metaphysical assumptions in Western thought. His work on the unconscious, sexuality, and the drives challenges the idea that one can draw clean distinctions between the inferiority of the human mind and the exteriority of an outside world. Through his controversial investigations of infantile sexuality, Freud discovers that the most intimate secrets of individuals (i.e., their most private, idiosyncratic desires) are the products of early conjunctions between libidinal forces and the contingent objects of varying childhood environments. In opting for the concept of drive (Trieb) over instinct, Freud challenges ideas about human nature, the subject—object distinction, and any claims about an innate teleology in human development.
However, toward the end of his career, Freud reverts to arguing for the existence of certain instincts with an innate, transhistorical structure. He turns away from the radical implications of his earlier efforts. It is Lacan's “return to Freud” that rediscovers the philosophical import of the Freudian theory of
Adrian Johnston is a doctoral student in the Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook.
drives. Through his concept of objet à, Lacan explores the theoretical limits implied by Freud himself.