Unlike animal appetite, human desire is enacted on an imaginary scene where I see myself through the eyes of the community that gives value to my choice. But to desire and to see oneself desire are contradictory operations. The fulfillment I envisage in the first case is incompatible with the second, where I imagine myself on the periphery of a circle with the object of my desire at the inaccessible center. Let us examine the two polar forms of human desire we know so well, resentment and love . The man of resentment is in contradiction with himself.
Love is the converse of resentment.
The resenter dreams of destroying someone who appears invulnerable. The lover, on the contrary, makes every effort to fortify his beloved against the mortality he shares with her. Thus even as I work for my beloved's infinite happiness, I cannot wish that this happiness not continue to require my care. Were my love's aim fulfilled and my beloved rendered invulnerable to death, the scene of my love would vanish. But their symmetry is not perfect.