Since human was born in the condition of powerless and dependent to the other human, this basic biological need can only be satisfied by the other human.
For instance, a baby’s need of nutrition is satisfied by being breastfed by the mother. In fact, need is only understood by the individual whom it belongs to.
Therefore, to get someone else’s help in order to satisfy it, need must be expressed vocally in the form of ‘demand’. Demand is expressed with two functions: an
articulation of need and a demand for love. Although the need can be satisfied by giving the object of the need to the person, the Other could not give the love that
the person demands. Therefore, there is something left unsatisfied. It is the desire. Unlike the
need and demand, which turn to other needs and demands when one is satisfied, desire is always unable to satisfy. The object of desire is only one. It is called
“objet petit a”. It is not the material object which desire tends, but it is the cause of desire. The reason of being so is explained by Evans like this, “Desire is not a
relation to an object, but a relation to a LACK” 1996: 38. This is one of the points that Lacan believed as the incompleteness of self, no one is whole. Human
always lacks of something.
b. Symptom
Symptom is a term which is commonly used in medical field. Since psychoanalysis was first a clinical study, it adopts a similar concept of symptom
from medical perception. The concept of symptom is thus predicated on a basic distinction between
surface and depth, between phenomena objects which can be directly
experienced and the hidden causes of those phenomena which cannot be experienced but must be inferred Evans, 1996: 205.
The distinctive point between symptom in medical field with the one which is in psychoanalysis is the ability of the symptom to lead the analysis to a
valid hidden phenomena occurred in a person. In medical world, certain symptom leads the analyst to arrive to a diagnosis about what a person tends to suffer from.
In psychoanalysis, something is considered as a symptom in one condition: it is repeated for many times. According to many cases that have been analyzed,
symptom is always something which is contrasted to the desire it represents. In literal association, a description of a symptom usually does not have any relation
with the repressed desire. Symptom could not be the only sign to determine the condition of a person. It still needs more complex method of collecting
information from various aspects of the person’s life to eventually be able to come to the nearest conclusion.
Another difference between medical symptom and psychoanalytic symptom is the aim of figuring it out. Medic does an effort to relate a symptom to
an illness that the patient has in order to cure the illness. In psychoanalysis, figuring out a symptom does not aim to remove it. It is considered as something
which is not necessary since when a symptom disappears, another one will replace it Evans, 1996: 205. Thus, along the life, human always suffers from symptoms.
According to Freud’s theory of repression, symptom is one of the forms by which the repressed can return.
5. Theory of Repression
In Freud’s concept of the division of psyche ego, superego, and id, these three entities work in a process of repression. Peter Barry in Beginning Theory
defined repression as “…the ‘forgetting’ or ignoring of unresolved conflicts, unadmitted desires, or traumatic past events, so that they are forced out of
conscious awareness and into the realm of the unconscious” Barry, 2009: 92-93. repression Id is always considered as something which is too vulgar or not
appropriate to be expressed directly. Therefore, it must be repressed so that it would not come out in another inappropriate form. This function is run by
superego. As the result of the repression, there comes the ego as the most proper form of the expression of id.
When something in human mind is repressed, it does not totally disappear. “…it remains alive in the unconscious, like radioactive matter buried beneath the
ocean, and constantly seeks a way back into the conscious mind, always succeeding eventually” Barry, 2009: 96. Freud once stated, “There is always a
return of the repressed.” According to Freud’s statement, each person will give the way back to his repressed fear and wish. Freud explained that those repressed
things might come back in the form of symptoms, dreams, or slips of tongue. Basically, Lacan agreed with Freud’s thought about repression. He did not
state a radical differentiation from it. However, since Lacan presented a different theory of subject, there are some things that are needed to be paid attention to. In
Lacan’s concept of repression, what to repress is the desire of a subject. A similar
