We can see this wonderfully expressed in Lacan’s reflections concerning a thought experiment forwarded by Immanuel Kant in his Critique of Practical Reason. Kant imagines that a man has the opportunity to sleep with a woman whom he desires. However, should he spend the night with her, the very next day he shall be hung on a gallows. For Kant, the decision concerning what to do is simple: the man should, for purely rational and self-interested reasons, refuse. Lacan, however, employing and developing the insights of Freud, showed how the very existence of an obstacle (here the gallows) can not
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