Desire is a fundamental characteristic of human existence and a cultural reality. The system of signs encodes desire and makes it available for analysis. The realization of desire takes place in the aggregate of cultural practices. Thus, the study of the influence of the desire on the change in the quality of human existence, and the study the transformation of culture as a complex system open up a new space of problem for us. New vision of the problem can be formulated as follows: to what extent the management of desire on the part of culture can be constructive for the subject and for the culture itself. The article concludes that the modern attitude to desire can be described as “quasiascetism”. Unlike religious ascetism, the new form of self-restraint is not the result of deliberate choice. It not part of the process of "taking care of yourself" and it not the way of attain free yourself from social and cultural norms. Function of asceticism maintaining a high level of intensity of desire. This function is achieved by creating cultural phenomena that create a break between desire and its realization.
