What does Lacan mean by ' desire is the desire of the other? Obsession does not necessarily mean sexual obsession, not even obsession for this, or for that in particular; to be an obsessional means to find oneself caught in a mechanism, in a trap increasingly demanding and endless. The mechanism of desire doesn't open new ways of achieving. Instead, it castrates what has left of the desire. Praxis has a much more comprehensive range of uses than nihilism. The more understanding and controlled desires are, the more an entity can achieve.