Este trabalho visa a discussão do processo criativo do ator, o paradoxo que representa sua criação e as conseqüências ética e estéticas que o mesmo carrega. Para isso tratamos de focalizar a discussão articulando-a à psicanálise e à filosofia trágica. O objetivo centra-se na função do desejo e a pulsão em relação com o inconsciente. Por isso desenvolvemos o Olhar, pulsão escópica, no processo criativo do ator e na sua relação deste com o público. Também abordamos as relações do sublime e do grotesco, não só na criação artística como assim também na própria vida. A pulsão invocante, a Voz, é estudada como material de importância ética, na construção da personagem. E o vazio nos aparece, na discussão da ética e a estética, como fundador, como mestre condutor da criação artística. Abordamos todos os temas salientando a impossibilidade de discutir ética e estética sem ter como matéria consistente o paradoxo que com tanta pertinência Pablo Picasso definiu quando expressou: dordure on fait lòr dur de la création. / The present work aims at discussing the actor creation process and the paradox represented by such creation and its ethic and aesthetic consequences. To that end, we focused on the discussion from the psychoanalysis and tragic philosophy viewpoint. The discussion objective is centered on the desire and pulsion functions and their relation with unconsciousness. Thus, we developed the Look, a scopic pulsion, within the creation process. We also focused on the relationship between sublime and grotesque not just in the artistic creation, but also in life. The evoking pulsion, the Voice, was studied as a material ethically important when building a character. And in the ethical discussion, emptiness appears to be the artistic creation founder and leading master. We approached the aforementioned themes and highlighted the impossibility of discussing ethics and esthetics without considering the paradox a consistent matter as defined by Pablo Picasso that said: dordure on fait lòr dur de la creation.

O presente trabalho toma como objeto o processo de escrita do texto acadêmico. Analisa os efeitos do trabalho de escrita conceito elaborado por Riolfi (2003) que ocorrem quando aquele que redige um texto se permite um processo de mão dupla: a) por um lado, permite que tanto a linguagem quanto os saberes já inscritos na cultura ressoem em seu corpo e; b) por outro, consegue distanciar-se o suficiente deste lugar de caixa de ressonância de modo a poder circunscrever um lugar enunciativo desde onde buscar respostas para questões que lhe sejam caras. Mobilizando o conceito de pulsão (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), uma vez que desejei vincular o ato de escrever com as maneiras por meio das quais preferencialmente cada pessoa obtém suas satisfações ao longo de sua existência, selecionei duas informantes com trajetória muito similar e economia pulsional bastante diversa. Como resultado da análise dos dois dossiês, que reúnem todos os rascunhos das dissertações das duas mestrandas, foi possível pontuar duas facetas pedagógicas diferentes envolvidas no percurso de construção do texto acadêmico: aprender a escrever e aprender ao escrever. Aprender a escrever foi a expressão utilizada para recobrir as operações necessárias para incluir o outro na escrita, considerando os efeitos de sentido potencialmente suscitados pelo texto. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão oral. Aprender ao escrever, por sua vez, consiste na possibilidade de utilizar a escrita como dispositivo de ensino para aprender uma teoria até o ponto de oferecê-la subjetivada ao leitor. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão anal. No processo de tessitura da dissertação das duas informantes, também analisei as intervenções realizadas pelo orientador, as quais permitiram a ocorrência de deslocamentos da relação do aluno com o saber no percurso de formação. Sendo assim, o estudo mostrou que a escrita é um poderoso dispositivo de ensino e sublimação. Quem decide enfrentar este processo jamais sairá ileso das ações que a linguagem exercerá no seu corpo. Concluí, portanto, que a condição necessária, por parte de um pesquisador, para escrever e ser formado é pautar suas ações na responsabilização (HANS JONAS, 2006). / This work deals with the academic writing process. It analyzes the effects of the Writing Work a concept elaborated by Riolfi (2003). According to her, this process occurs when the one who writes an academic text allows himself to go into a two-way process: a) on one hand allows either the language or the knowledge that is already inscribed in culture to resound in its body and; b) on the other hand, is able to be distant enough from this place of resonance box in order to circumscribe an enunciative place, since the location one can look for answers to the questions that are important to him/her. Using the concept of pulsion (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), as I aimed to link the writing act with the ways through each person mainly gets his/her satisfactions lifelong, Ive chosen two Masters degree students whose trajectory was very similar, but with the pulsional economy widely different. As a result of the two dossiers analysis, which put together all the drafts of the informants dissertations, it was possible to demonstrate two different pedagogical facets involved in the academic writing process: learning how to write and learning while writing. Learning how to write was the expression used in order to cover the necessary operations to include another person in the writing task, considering the meaning effects potentially raised by the text itself. It is, therefore, a change in the oral pulsion economy. Learning while writing is the possibility of using writing as a teaching device to learn a theory until it can be available on a subjective way to the reader. It is, therefore, a change in the anal pulsion economy. Observing the dissertation writing process of the two informants, I also analyzed the interventions made by the adviser, which provided some displacement of the student relationship with knowledge during the development journey. In such case, this study has shown that writing is a powerful device for teaching and sublimation. The one who decides to face this process will never be unharmed of the actions which language is going to perform in his/her body. I concluded, therefore, that the necessary condition in the researchers rule, in order to write and be graduated is guiding his/ her actions through responsibleness. (HANS JONAS, 2006).

Cette recherche, basée sur le vécu de la maladie cancéreuse, chez l’adulte atteint d’une tumeur solide à risque mortel et à fort potentiel traumatique, étudie la pertinence de la notion de pulsion d’emprise dans son articulation à Eros et Thanatos. Elle vise à éclairer un constat clinique : la discordance entre l’évolution satisfaisante de la maladie et le ressenti subjectif péjoratif du malade et, analyser les enjeux psychiques, suivant les discours théorico-cliniques (historique, médical, philosophique, psycho-oncologique, psychanalytique). Une première partie souligne l’évolution médicale, sociétale de cette atteinte, marquée par des représentations mortifères, contrastant avec la scientificité actuelle. La notion de temporalité est étudiée, celles de la maladie cancéreuse et de ses traitements en rapport à celle du sujet. La deuxième partie aborde le champ de l’emprise dans le discours psychanalytique. L’étude clinico-théorique de situations cliniques montre la force de la pulsion d’emprise et ses valeurs contrastées dans le travail psychique du malade, marqué par la prégnance de la représentation de la mort.La troisième partie métapsychologique décrit la conflictualité entre les instances psychiques, le corps et le cancer. L’analyse du pulsionnel et particulièrement de la pulsion anarchiste interroge l’articulation entre la pulsion d’emprise et la pulsion de vie sans oublier le nouage de cette dernière à la pulsion de mort. Le rapport entre le moi-corps et le médium malléable est questionné.L’hypothèse de la valeur de l’emprise est étudiée comme un aménagement nécessaire, temporaire avant l’acceptation par le moi des pertes induites par le cancer. / This research, based on the experience of cancer disease, in adult patients with solid tumors at deadly risk and potential trauma, studies the relevance of the concept of right of way in its drive joint Eros and Thanatos. It aims to inform clinical observation: the discrepancy between the satisfactory evolution of the disease and the subjective feeling pejorative patient and analyze the psychological issues, according to the theoretical and clinical speech (historical, medical, philosophical, psycho-oncology, psychoanalytic). The first part stresses the medical evolution, this social achievement, marked by deadly performances, contrasting with the current scientific. The concept of temporality is studied, those of the cancer disease and its treatment in relation to that of the subject. The second part addresses the influence of the field in the psychoanalytic discourse. Clinical and theoretical study of clinical situations shows the strength of the grip and drive its contrasting values in the psychological work of the patient, marked by the predominance of the representation of death. The third part describes the metapsychological conflict between the psychic instances, the body and cancer. The analysis of the drive and especially the anarchist impulse questioned the link between the drive and grip the life instinct not to mention tying the latter to the death drive. The relationship between bodily and the pliable medium is questioned. The assumption of the value of the grip is studied as a necessary development, temporary before acceptance by me of losses induced by cancer.

La recherche repose sur le rôle primordial de l'angoisse dans le mouvement de la crise. Les différents processus pulsionnels donnent lieu à la constitution du concept d'angoisse paroxystique. Celui-ci s'extraie de l'analyse d'une expression d'angoisse non déterminée dans un syndrome spécifique et significative de l'impact du débordement agressif de la pulsion d'autodestruction. L'introduction du concept d'angoisse paroxystique est élaborée, d'un point de vue métapsychologique, tant dans son versant quantitatif que qualitatif. Il rend compte, d'une décharge pulsionnelle violente : un agir indiquant la singularité d'une angoisse a-structurelle, une désorganisation psychique mortifère. Son retentissement est d'abord abordé sous son aspect comportemental, une mise en acte pulsionnelle : un agir connexité entre l'acting out et le passage à l'acte puis orienté vers la crise suicidaire introduisant un « recours à l'acte ». Par la suite sous son aspect somatique : persistance de la souffrance psychique envisagée dans les symptômes corporels. Et enfin, le sens d'une progression autodestructrice dévoilant une violence interne est précisé et permet de différencier l'agressivité de la destructivité et de soulever la problématique narcissique. L'expérimentation fournit un éclaircissement sur le fonctionnement psychopathologique et sur le mode résolutoire de l'acte, se déploie vers des problématiques liées à la dépendance affective, à l'addiction, précise le rôle de l'intersubjectivité et soulève des opportunités conceptuelles intéressantes.

D'un roman à l'autre, Romain Gary tourne inlassablement autour d'une même problématique : montrer en quoi les valeurs humaines d'entraide, d'amour et de fraternité, en perte de vitesse dans le monde moderne, doivent à tout prix être protégées envers et contre tout pour la survie de l'homme. Dans Charge d'âme (1977), cette problématique est doublée d'une autre qui, bien que présente dans une majeure partie de l'œuvre de l'écrivain, est soulignée avec davantage de vigueur : l'homme est la menace la plus dangereuse pour l'espèce humaine. La forme d'un récit étant déterminante et fonction du sens, nous nous intéresserons, dans ce mémoire, à voir de quelles façons celle du roman Charge d'âme convoque différentes figures emblématiques de la pulsion de mort pour se raconter et comment son déploiement narratif soutient cette lutte constante, intrinsèque au vivant, entre Éros et Thanatos. Nous montrerons ainsi en quoi le discours du récit est lui-même pris dans ce qu'il révèle et critique : l'humaine pulsion d'auto-anéantissement. Il s'agira dans un premier temps d'analyser la voix narratrice de discours du roman pour montrer comment elle tente, sans jamais y parvenir, de disparaître derrière le récit ou encore de se fondre dans celle des personnages. Étudier les jeux d'ironie sera par ailleurs l'occasion d'exposer que la critique virulente du religieux, de la politique ou du progrès technique scientifique, par exemple, en est une du risque relié à tous les extrêmes. Par ailleurs, en se rapportant à l'Apocalypse paulinienne et à d'autres intertextes du récit, nous verrons en quoi le discours met à la fois en scène le récit d'une fin à venir et celle d'une fin ayant déjà eu lieu, et comment le tragique de la condition humaine est, de ce fait, mis en évidence et souligné par l'importance donnée à la nécessité du mythe et de la mémoire. Finalement, nous nous attarderons à la représentation du corps féminin comme voie de salut. Nous observerons comment cette figure se fait le porte-étendard d'une nostalgie qui, si elle appert être salutaire, n'en porte pas moins tout le danger de l'autodestruction. Le roman La tête coupable (1968), de Romain Gary, viendra ponctuellement guider et appuyer notre analyse. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Romain Gary, Charge d'âme, discours, récit, psychanalyse, pulsion de mort, origine.

Ce mémoire a pour but d’élucider l’analyse et l’évaluation nietzschéennes du sens et de la portée de la figure de Socrate dans les cultures antique et moderne. Pour ce faire, nous nous pencherons d’abord sur la question de l’identité de Socrate, ce qui permettra d’introduire une distinction centrale à l’analyse de Nietzsche, soit celle entre la doctrine et la personnalité du célèbre Athénien. En effet, Nietzsche isole la personnalité de Socrate, qu’il circonscrit à partir des notions d’instinct, de pulsion et d’affect, de sa doctrine, qu’il appelle le socratisme et qu’il définit à partir de l’équation socratique raison = vertu = bonheur. Ensuite, nous développerons les trois éléments sur lesquels il s’appuie pour expliquer que Socrate ait pu séduire les Grecs, soit le fait qu’il fut un grand érotique, qu’il introduisit une nouvelle forme de joute à Athènes et qu’il apparut comme étant un médecin pour ses contemporains. Cette question des raisons permettant d’expliquer que Socrate ait pu séduire les Grecs est déterminante pour Nietzsche, puisque c’est de là qu’il est amené à se demander qui est ce Socrate et quel a été son véritable impact sur la culture, soit les deux questions qui sont au cœur de ce qu’il appelle « le problème de Socrate ». Enfin, nous nous pencherons sur le diagnostic que le philosophe allemand pose sur le célèbre Athénien ainsi que sur son évaluation de l’impact du socratisme sur les cultures antique et moderne, après quoi nous présenterons l’inversion des valeurs que Nietzsche tente d’opérer dans sa propre culture. Nous verrons alors qu’il cherche entre autres par cette inversion des valeurs à nous libérer du socratisme, car il est d’avis que cette doctrine dévalorise toute forme d’agir puisant ses motifs dans ce qui relève de l’inconscient et survalorise une morale luttant contre les pulsions dominantes en nous. / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate Nietzsche’s analysis and assessment of the meaning and the impact of Socrates’ character on the classical and modern culture. To that effect, I will emphasize the question of Socrates’ identity, in order to introduce the crucial issue in Nietzsche’s analysis, namely the distinction between Socrates’ doctrine and his character. Nietzsche isolated Socrates’ character – which he defined through the categories of instinct, drive, and affect – from his doctrine, which he labelled socratism and defined through the Socratic equation reason = virtue = happiness. This thesis explores the three core elements Nietzsche used to explain how Socrates was able to seduce the Greeks: not only was Socrates a very erotic figure, he also introduced a new form of debate to Athens, and was considered an eminent physician by his contemporaries. Socrates’ appeal to the Greek is of fundamental importance to Nietzsche, since it prompted him to question Socrates’ inherent character, and his true impact on Athenian culture. It thus forms the crux of what he called “the problem of Socrates.” Nietzsche’s understanding of socratism as well as its impact on classical and modern culture allows him to revaluate all values within his own culture. To that effect, I reveal Nietzsche’s critiques of socratism – in particular, his belief that society needed to be liberated from socratism, since it denies all agency to individuals. Given that it was strongly motivated by the unconscious, socratism, according to Nietzsche, overemphasizes a certain morality in the struggle against our dominant impulses.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur la question du lien entre une cruauté désobjectalisante, au sens où André Green a conceptualisée la déobjectalisation, et la pulsion scopique, à partir d’un travail sur les élaborations transférentielles et contre-transférentielles en jeu dans trois prises en charge psychothérapeutiques. Cette réflexion commence sur les répercussions de la position en face à face et de l’impact du regard dans cet espace transféro-contre-transférentiel. Comment soutenir le regard face aux insoutenables représentations de certains récits de vie ? Peut-on penser le regard dans la thérapie au travers du filtre de la cruauté ? L’idée d’une confrontation des regards s’est peu à peu introduite et s’est imposée suite à cette impression grandissante d’un face à face/ corps à corps. Le face à face thérapeutique se voit alors transformer en un corps à corps symbolique. Le corps peut être entendu comme le point de rencontre entre cruauté désobjectalisante et pulsion scopique. Afin de revenir aux origines de la cruauté, le corps est d’abord travaillé au travers de la philosophie, puis envisagé dans le cadre de la recherche psychanalytique avec des auteurs comme Freud, Winnicott, Lacan, Green, Bonnet, Dominique Cupa, amenant progressivement au rapprochement entre cruauté et regard. Les concepts de cruauté, de pulsion cruelle et de pulsion scopique sont alors considérés non seulement sous l’angle de la psychanalyse mais aussi à travers l’étude des mythes et légendes. Dans ces mythes, l’œil/miroir comme source de son propre reflet destructeur tient une place prépondérante. Le reflet de soi-même devient un reflet de mort. A l’image de Méduse condamnée par Athéna à ne jamais se voir tant dans le regard de l’autre que dans son propre regard, cette recherche pose la question du regard comme nécessité à toutes constitutions psychiques humaines, du narcissisme, de sa construction et de son maintien. / This thesis begins with the impact of face to face therapy and the importance of sight productions in transference and counter-transference space. How to endure the visual representations of some stories? May we think about sight under filtered of cruelty in psychotherapy? In this thesis the idea of sight confrontation appears as a hand to hand impression. The therapeutic face to face highlights now as a symbolic hand to hand. The body may be understood as the meeting point of disobjectalization cruelty and scopic drives. In this research about the origins of cruelty, the body is first thought as philosophical concepts, the in frame of psychoanalytic research including Freud, Winnicott, Lacan, Green, Bonnet, Dominique Cupa, leading gradually the sight by cruelty. The concepts of cruelty and scopic drives are considered not only in the terms of psychoanalytic theories but also through the study of myths and legends. In these myths the eye/mirror, source of owns destructive reflections is important. The reflection of oneself is reflection of death. Medusa was condemned by Athena never to be seen in the sight of others, and in her own sight. This research raises the sight’s question as necessary to all human psychic constitutions, to narcissism’s construction and maintenance.

O presente trabalho toma como objeto o processo de escrita do texto acadêmico. Analisa os efeitos do trabalho de escrita conceito elaborado por Riolfi (2003) que ocorrem quando aquele que redige um texto se permite um processo de mão dupla: a) por um lado, permite que tanto a linguagem quanto os saberes já inscritos na cultura ressoem em seu corpo e; b) por outro, consegue distanciar-se o suficiente deste lugar de caixa de ressonância de modo a poder circunscrever um lugar enunciativo desde onde buscar respostas para questões que lhe sejam caras. Mobilizando o conceito de pulsão (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), uma vez que desejei vincular o ato de escrever com as maneiras por meio das quais preferencialmente cada pessoa obtém suas satisfações ao longo de sua existência, selecionei duas informantes com trajetória muito similar e economia pulsional bastante diversa. Como resultado da análise dos dois dossiês, que reúnem todos os rascunhos das dissertações das duas mestrandas, foi possível pontuar duas facetas pedagógicas diferentes envolvidas no percurso de construção do texto acadêmico: aprender a escrever e aprender ao escrever. Aprender a escrever foi a expressão utilizada para recobrir as operações necessárias para incluir o outro na escrita, considerando os efeitos de sentido potencialmente suscitados pelo texto. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão oral. Aprender ao escrever, por sua vez, consiste na possibilidade de utilizar a escrita como dispositivo de ensino para aprender uma teoria até o ponto de oferecê-la subjetivada ao leitor. Trata-se, portanto, de uma mudança na economia da pulsão anal. No processo de tessitura da dissertação das duas informantes, também analisei as intervenções realizadas pelo orientador, as quais permitiram a ocorrência de deslocamentos da relação do aluno com o saber no percurso de formação. Sendo assim, o estudo mostrou que a escrita é um poderoso dispositivo de ensino e sublimação. Quem decide enfrentar este processo jamais sairá ileso das ações que a linguagem exercerá no seu corpo. Concluí, portanto, que a condição necessária, por parte de um pesquisador, para escrever e ser formado é pautar suas ações na responsabilização (HANS JONAS, 2006). / This work deals with the academic writing process. It analyzes the effects of the Writing Work a concept elaborated by Riolfi (2003). According to her, this process occurs when the one who writes an academic text allows himself to go into a two-way process: a) on one hand allows either the language or the knowledge that is already inscribed in culture to resound in its body and; b) on the other hand, is able to be distant enough from this place of resonance box in order to circumscribe an enunciative place, since the location one can look for answers to the questions that are important to him/her. Using the concept of pulsion (FREUD, 1915, 1920; LACAN, 1964), as I aimed to link the writing act with the ways through each person mainly gets his/her satisfactions lifelong, Ive chosen two Masters degree students whose trajectory was very similar, but with the pulsional economy widely different. As a result of the two dossiers analysis, which put together all the drafts of the informants dissertations, it was possible to demonstrate two different pedagogical facets involved in the academic writing process: learning how to write and learning while writing. Learning how to write was the expression used in order to cover the necessary operations to include another person in the writing task, considering the meaning effects potentially raised by the text itself. It is, therefore, a change in the oral pulsion economy. Learning while writing is the possibility of using writing as a teaching device to learn a theory until it can be available on a subjective way to the reader. It is, therefore, a change in the anal pulsion economy. Observing the dissertation writing process of the two informants, I also analyzed the interventions made by the adviser, which provided some displacement of the student relationship with knowledge during the development journey. In such case, this study has shown that writing is a powerful device for teaching and sublimation. The one who decides to face this process will never be unharmed of the actions which language is going to perform in his/her body. I concluded, therefore, that the necessary condition in the researchers rule, in order to write and be graduated is guiding his/ her actions through responsibleness. (HANS JONAS, 2006).

ALe but de ma recherche est une interprétation psychanalytique des œuvres dramatiques de Jóhann Sigurjónsson. L'œuvre d'art reflète les préoccupations de son auteur et traite d'émotions universelles, et particulièrement des désirs et passions comme motivations primaires. J'ai entrepris l'analyse de la relation entre passions et écriture littéraire dans les œuvres de Jóhann Sigurjónsson. Dans ce but, j'ai tout d'abord étudié le poids relatif du contexte historique et culturel. Par une analyse structurale précise du texte, j'ai pu dégager les thèmes essentiels. Sous des apparences trompeuses, tous les personnages se révèlent excessifs et fragiles. Par conséquent, les passions, considérées ici comme un "avatar" de l'organisation narcissique de la personnalité, entraînent une rupture psychique, des désordres psychotiques ou la mort. La régression narcissique montre que la passion est sous la domination des pulsions de mort. Ce lien entre les passions et les diverses expressions des pulsions de mort apparaît comme une butée finale résistant à une interprétation plus poussée. / The aim of my research is to propose a psychoanalytic interpretation of Jóhann Sigurjónsson's dramatic works. Works of art support the true preoccupations of their author and concern themselves with universal feelings and especially desires and passions as primal motivations. I have undertaken an analysis of the relationship between passions and generally literary writing in the works of Jóhann Sigurjónsson. In order to do that, I have first investigated the relative role of the historical and cultural context of the plays. By means of an accurate structural analysis, the main topics are then drawn from the text. On the surface, all the characters are excessive and weak. Consequently passions, here considered as an "avatar" of the narcissistic organization of the personality, result in breakdown, psychotic disease or death. Narcissistic regression shows that the passion is dependant on a domination of the death instincts. This relationship between the passions and the various expressions of the death instincts appears as the final buttress that stands up to further interpretation.

La pulsion, concept fondamental de la psychanalyse, doit-elle être conceptualisée en termes dualistes ou monistes ? À partir de deux principes premiers essentiellement irréductibles et antagonistes, Freud cherchait toujours à conceptualiser la pulsion en termes dualistes : pulsion d’autoconservation vs pulsion sexuelle partielle, libido de moi vs libido d’objet, pulsion de vie vs pulsion de mort. Interprétation biologique de la pulsion de mort, compulsion de répétition comme tendance restitutive, et dualisme pulsionnel – je propose que ces choix théoriques de Freud soient en effet liés.Quant à Lacan, mon hypothèse est qu’il était propulsé par un « pousse-à-l’unarisme » ; à partir de la topologie et le modèle de ratage, son intuition fondamentale était que la pulsion doit être conceptualisée en termes monistes. Lacan parvient ainsi à injecter non seulement plaisir, mais jouissance, cette satisfaction paradoxale qui fait souffrir, dans la structure fondamentale – dans le but – de la pulsion. Ceci implique que la pulsion de mort ainsi que le masochisme sont des aspects de chaque pulsion.Pendant un certain temps, le concept de pulsion sera pourtant éclipsé par le concept de répétition, répétition de jouissance en tant que plus-de-jouir. Or la pulsion moniste fait finalement un retour discret lorsque la question du symptôme se met en avant dans le dernier enseignement de Lacan. Je propose qu’un monisme pulsionnel soit une condition de possibilité pour le sinthome, et qu’à partir d’une revalorisation du versant de la pulsion de vie du point de vue de l’Un discret, le sinthome comporte une homéostasie supérieure, c’est-à-dire une satisfaction qui inclut ce qui la dérange. / Should the drive, which is fundamental concept of psychoanalysis, be conceptualized in monistic or dualistic terms? With two essentially irreconcilable and antagonistic principles as his point of departure, Freud always sought to conceptualize the drive in dualistic terms: drives of self-preservation vs. partial sexual drives, ego-libido vs. object-libido, life drive vs. death drive. A biological interpretation of the death drive, the repetition compulsion conceptualized as a restitutive tendency, and a drive dualism – I propose that these theoretical choices of Freud are in fact related.As for Lacan, my hypothesis is that he is driven by a “push-to-unarisme”; with topology and the model of misfiring / failure as his point of departure, his fundamental intuition is that the drive ought to be conceptualized in monistic terms. Lacan is thereby able to inject not only pleasure, but jouissance, this paradoxical satisfaction which entails suffering, in the basic structure – in the aim – of the drive. This implies that the death drive as well as masochism are aspects of each drive.For a time, the concept of the drive will however be overshadowed by the concept of repetition, repetition of jouissance qua plus-de-jouir. Yet the drive qua monism finally makes a discreet return when the question of the symptom comes to the fore in Lacan’s later teaching. I propose that a drive monism is a condition of possibility for the lacanian sinthome, and that on the basis of a reassessment of the different aspects of the life drive from the point of view of the One discrete, the sinthome entails a second-order homeostasis, that is to say a satisfaction that includes what unsettles it.