Desejo no singular, desejos no plural

Abstract

The author entitles her speech “Desire in the singular, desires in the plural” as she argues there are two ways of desiring: those without an object (desires which commit mistakes) and those with an object (desire for something). She places these last ones as destructive, approximating them to the Capitalist Discourse. According to Soler, for psychoanalysis, the main challenge is to establish what fixes the desire in each particular case, what takes to the sexual body to body relationship, to the fact of an existing sexual desire. In the sequence, she places Freud’s and Lacan’s answers – the Oedipus for the  first, and the Paternal Metaphor for the latter – highlighting the impossibility of localizing in this logic the homosexual couple.  The author also proposes another of Lacan’s answer: it is the symptom which directs it to bed.  Thus, the Paternal Metaphor and the Oedipus are modalities of desire and jouissance, among other possible ones. Soler concludes with the questioning: Who will dare to say that a type of symptom is worth more than another? Is there an Other of the Other to tell who is best?