英：demand;法：demande
法文术语“demander”与“demande”缺乏由英文单词“demand”所传达出的命令性或紧迫性的内涵，它们或许更接近于英文单词“ask for'”（索要）与“request'”（请求）。然而，为了维持一致性，拉康的所有英文译本皆使用了“demand”这个术语。
虽然只是从 1958 年开始，“要求”这个术语才开始突出地出现在拉康的著作当中，但是早在 1956 一 1957 年度的研讨班上，就已经出现了一些相关的主题。正是在这一期的研讨班上，拉康讨论了“呼唤”(I'appel),即婴儿朝向母亲的啼哭 (S 4,182)。拉康指出，这个“啼哭”(c)并不仅仅是某种本能的信号，而是“被嵌入了在象征系统中组织起来的一个共时性的啼哭的世界之中”（S 4,188)。换句话说，早在孩子能够表达出可辨认的单词很久以前，婴儿的哭闹便已然被组织在了一个语言结构之中。
正是婴儿哭闹的象征性本质，构成了拉康的要求概念的核心，拉康在 1958 年将其引入了他在需要 (NEED)、要求与欲望（DESRE)之间进行区分的语境当中。拉康指出，因为婴儿没有能力去执行那些可满足其生物性需要的特定的行动，所以它就必须以声音（即要求）的形式来链接/表达 (articulate)那些需要，以便另一个人（即母亲）会替它去执行这一特定的行动。关于这样一种生物性的需要，主要的例子是饥饿，孩子用哭闹（即要求）来表达饥饿，以便母亲会来哺育它。
然而，因为满足孩子需要的对象是由另一个人所提供的，所以该对象便作为大他者的爱的证据而具有了额外的意义。要求从而也就相应地获得了某种双重功能：除了链接/表达某种需要之外，它还变成了一种对爱的要求。而且，正如这一对象作为爱的证据的象征性功能掩盖了其满足需要的实在性功能，所以要求的象征性维度（作为一种对爱的要求）也就遮蔽了它的实在性功能（作为一种对需要的表达）。正是此种双重功能使欲望延生了，因为要求所表达的需要是可以得到满足的，但是对爱的渴求是无条件的且无法满足的，因此，即便是在需要已经得到满足之后，对爱的渴求也依然会作为某种残余物而继续存在；这个残余物于是便构成了欲望。
要求因而与人类主体最初的无助 (HEPLESSNESS)有着密切的联系。通过促使分析者完全在言语中来表达自己，精神分析的情境便将其放回到了无助的婴儿的位置上，从而激发出退行（REGRESSION)。
经由要求的中介，一直到童年早期的整个过去都会打开。主体除了要求以外从未做过任何事情，他无法以别的方式存活下来，而我们恰恰从那里继续下去。
(E, 254)
然而，虽然分析者的言语本身便已经是一个要求（即要求某种回应），但是这一要求会受到一些更深层的要求（即要求被治愈、向自身揭示、成为分析家）所巩固 (E, 254)。分析家如何处理这些要求的问题是至关重要的。当然，分析家并不试图去满足分析者的种种要求，不过这也并不仅仅是一个挫败它们的问题（见：挫折 FRUSTRATION)
在 1961 年，拉康将力比多组织 (libidinal organisation)的各个阶段重新思考为要求的不同形式。口腔阶段是由被喂养的要求所建立的，这是由主体所发出的一种要求。另一方面，在肛门阶段中，问题就不是主体的要求，而是大他者（在大小便训练中规范孩子的父母）的要求 (S 8,238-46,269)。在这两个前生殖阶段中，要求的满足都遮蔽了欲望：只有在生殖阶段中，欲望才最终得以充分地构成 (S8,270)。
(demande) The French terms demander and demandelack the connotationsofimperativeness and urgency conveyed by the English word 'demand', and are perhapscloser to the English words 'ask for'and 'request'. However, all English translations of Lacan use the term 'demand'in order to maintain consistency.
Although the term 'demand'only begins to figure prominently in Lacan's work from1958 on, related themes are already present in the 1956-7 seminar. It is in this seminarthat Lacan discusses the call (l'appel), the baby's cry to the mother (S4,182). Lacanargues that this cry (cri) is not merely an instinctual signal but 'is inserted in a synchronicworld of cries organised in a symbolic system' (S4,188). In other words, the infant'sscreams become organised in a linguistic structure long before the child is capable ofarticulating recognisable words.
It is the symbolic nature of the infant's screams which forms the kernel of Lacan'sconcept of demand, which Lacan introduces in 1958 in the context of his distinctionbetween NEED, demand and DESIRE. Lacan argues that since the infant is incapable of performing the specific actions that would satisfy its biological needs, it must articulatethose needs in vocal form (demands) so that another (the mother) will perform thespecific action instead. The primary example of such a biological need is hunger, whichthe child articulates in a scream (a demand) so that the mother will feed it.
However, because the object which satisfies the child's need is provided by another, ittakes on the added significance of being a proof of the Other's love. Accordingly demandtoo acquires a double function: in addition to articulating a need, it also becomes ademand for love. And just as the symbolic function of the object as a proof of loveovershadows its real function as that which satisfies a need, so too the symbolicdimension of demand (as a demand for love) eclipses its real function (as an articulationof need). It is this double function which gives birth to desire, since while the needswhich demand articulates may be satisfied, the craving for love is unconditional andinsatiable, and hence persists as a leftover even after the needs have been satisfied; thisleftover constitutes desire.
Demand is thus intimately linked to the human subject's initial HELPLESSNESS. Byforcing the analysand to express himself entirely in speech, the psychoanalytic situationputs him back in the position of the helpless infant, thus encouraging REGRESSION.
Through the mediation of the demand, the whole past opens up right downto early infancy. The subject has never done anything other than demand, he could not have survived otherwise, and we just follow on from there.
(E, 254)
However, while the speech of the analysand is itself already a demand (for a reply), thisdemand is underpinned by deeper demands (to be cured, to be revealed to himself, tobecome an analyst)(E, 254). The question of how the analyst engages with thesedemands is crucial. Certainly the analyst does not attempt to gratify the analysand'sdemands, but nor is it simply a question of frustrating them (see FRUSTRATION).
In 1961, Lacan rethinks the various stages of libidinal organisation as forms ofdemand. The oral stage is constituted by a demand to be fed, which is a demand made bythe subject. In the anal stage, on the other hand, it is not a question of the subject'sdemand, but the demand of the Other (the parent who disciplines the child in potty-training)(S8,238-46,269). In both of these pregenital stages the satisfaction of demandeclipses desire; only in the genital stage does desire come to be fully constituted (S8,270)