Psychoanalysis has as one of its central operators an innovative understanding of human sexuality. The concept of drive, of the sexual drive in particular, has a prominent place. Determinations and implications of the relocation of this concept in Freud's work create theoretical difficulties in the sexual issue and its relation to otherness. In the first drive dualism, the sexual drive is a disruptive force, opposed to self-conservative ones because of its destabilizing character for the ego. With the emergence of the concept of narcissism, the ego's constitution takes on an eminently sexual character, and the opposition between ego and sexuality is problematized. In the second drive theory, grounded on the opposition between Eros and the death drive, the latter is a destructive force, whose nature, according to Freud, would not be sexual. Drawing on Jean Laplanche, we discuss how to reconcile the violent and disruptive features of human sexuality with the linking dimension inherent to Eros.
Drive; sexuality; otherness