Christian ethics ought to take seriously the notion of the unconscious desire as developed in the work of both Jacques Lacan and Denis Vasse. Since motivation remains central to this theological ethics, the psychoanalytical understanding of desire will change the way of conceiving motivation in general.
This desire is not a mere biological appetition; it is not simply the appetitive power of De Anima; it is not the pure rational will of Kant; it is not even the Hegelian desire for absolute knowledge. Human desire is the desire of/for the Other, which becomes unconscious through the effect of...