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{{Short description|1972 book by Deleuze and Guattari}} | |||
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Misplaced Pages:WikiProject_Books --> | |||
{{Infobox book | |||
| name = Anti-Oedipus | |||
| name = Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia | |||
| title_orig = Capitalisme et schizophrénie.</br>L'anti-Œdipe | |||
| title_orig = Capitalisme et schizophrénie<br />L'anti-Œdipe | |||
| translator = Robert Hurley<br>Mark Seem<br>Helen R. Lane | |||
| translators = ]<br />Mark Seem<br />Helen R. Lane | |||
| image = ] | |||
| image = File:Anti-Oedipus (French edition).jpg | |||
| image_caption = Front cover of the 1983 University of Minnesota Press edition | |||
| |
| caption = Cover of the first edition | ||
| |
| authors = ]<br />] | ||
| illustrator = | |||
| publisher = ] | |||
| cover_artist = | |||
| release_date = 1972 (French)<br>1977 (English) | |||
| country = France | |||
| followed_by = ] ''(1975)' | |||
| language = French | |||
| series = | |||
| subject = ], ] | |||
| publisher = ] | |||
| publisher2 = ] | |||
| pub_date = 1972 | |||
| english_pub_date = 1977 | |||
| media_type = Print (] and ]) | |||
| pages = 494 (French edition)<br />400 (University of Minnesota Press edition) | |||
| isbn = 0-8166-1225-0 | |||
| isbn_note = (University of Minnesota Press edition) | |||
| dewey= | |||
| congress= | |||
| oclc= | |||
| preceded_by = | |||
| followed_by = A Thousand Plateaus (1980) | |||
}} | }} | ||
'''''Anti-Oedipus''''' ( |
'''''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia''''' ({{langx|fr|Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe}}) is a 1972 book by French authors ] and ], the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first volume of their collaborative work '']'', the second being '']'' (1980). | ||
In the book, ] and ] developed the concepts and theories in ], a loose critical practice initiated from the standpoint of ] and ] as well as from the social progress that ] has spurred. They refer to psychoanalysis, economics, the creative arts, literature, anthropology and history in engagement with these concepts.<ref name=f14>Foucault (1977, 14).</ref> Contrary to contemporary French uses of the ideas of ], they outlined a "] psychiatry" modeled on the ] regarded as an aggregate of productive processes of desire, incorporating their concept of ] which interrelates desiring-machines and ], and repurpose ]'s ] to detail their different organizations of social production, "recording surfaces", coding, territorialization and the act of "inscription". ]'s ideas of the ] and ] also have roles in how Deleuze and Guattari describe schizophrenia; the book extends from much of Deleuze's prior thinking in '']'' and '']'' that utilized Nietzsche's ideas to explore a radical conception of ]. | |||
Deleuze and Guattari also draw on and criticize the philosophies and theories of: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=names>Deleuze and Guattari (1980, 423–427).</ref> | |||
The book draws on and criticises the ideas of a vast range of thinkers; in addition to Marx and Freud, these include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=names>Deleuze and Guattari (1980, 423-427).</ref> Deleuze and Guattari also draw on a wide range of creative writers and artists during the course of their argument; these include ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].<ref name=names/> Foremost among its influences, however, stands ]—''Anti-Oedipus'' may be considered a kind of sequel to '']''.<ref>Seem (1977, xviii, xx).</ref> | |||
They additionally draw on authors and artists whose works demonstrate their concept of schizophrenia as "the universe of productive and reproductive desiring-machines",<ref>Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus, p.4</ref> such as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].<ref name="names" /> | |||
Some of Guattari's diary entries, correspondence with Deleuze, and notes on the development of the book were published posthumously as ''The Anti-Oedipus Papers'' (2004).<ref>Guattari (2004).</ref> | |||
Thus, given the richness and diversity of the source material it draws upon and the grand task it sets out to accomplish, ''Anti-Oedipus'' can, as ] suggests in the preface to the text, "best be read as an 'art,{{'"}} and it would be a "mistake to read as the new theoretical reference" in philosophy.<ref name=aopreface>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xli).</ref> | |||
==Schizoanalysis== | |||
] painting "Boy with Machine" (1954) demonstrates the ] thesis of the primacy of desire's social investments over its familial ones: "the turgid little boy has already plugged a desiring-machine into a social machine, short-circuiting the parents."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 8, 51, 392). The painting forms the ] of ''Anti-Oedipus''.</ref>]] | |||
''Anti-Oedipus'' became a sensation upon publication and was widely celebrated, creating shifts in contemporary philosophy. It is seen as a key text in the "micropolitics of desire", alongside Lyotard's '']''. It has been credited with devastating ] due to its unorthodox criticism of the movement. | |||
==Summary== | |||
===Schizoanalysis=== | |||
]'s painting ''Boy with Machine'' (1954) demonstrates the ] thesis of the primacy of desire's social investments over its familial ones: "the turgid little boy has already plugged a desiring-machine into a social machine, short-circuiting the parents."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 8, 51, 392). The painting forms the ] of ''Anti-Oedipus''.</ref>]] | |||
{{Main|Schizoanalysis}} | {{Main|Schizoanalysis}} | ||
Deleuze and Guattari's "]" is a social and political analysis that responds to what they see as the ] tendencies of ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 54, 108, 127–128, 325-xx). Deleuze and Guattari argue that there was no specific "turning point" in the theoretical development of ] at which it became ]; instead, it contained "revolutionary, reformist, and reactionary elements" from the start. "We refuse to play 'take it or leave it'," they write. This politically ambiguous mixture of tendencies in psychoanalysis arises, they argue, from its ambiguous relationship with its discoveries: "As if every great doctrine were not a ''combined formation,'' constructed from bits and pieces, various intermingled codes and flux, partial elements and derivatives, that constitute its very life or becoming. As if we could reproach someone for having an ambiguous relationship with psychoanalysis, without first mentioning that psychoanalysis owes its existence to a relationship, theoretically and practically ambiguous, with what it discovers and the forces that it wields" (1972, 128). Despite the militancy of the analyses proposed within Deleuze and Guattari's project, they insist that "no political program will be elaborated within the framework of schizoanalysis" (1972, 415). Guattari developed the implications of their theory for a concrete political project in his book with the Italian ] philosopher ], ''Communists Like Us'' (1985). For the variable relations between the socius of capital and revolutionary autonomous territorialities, see Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 410).</ref> It proposes a functional evaluation of the direct ] of desire—whether revolutionary or reactionary—in a field that is social, biological, historical, and geographical.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 93, 115, 322–333, 354, 400).</ref> Deleuze and Guattari develop four theses of schizoanalysis: | |||
{{cquote|We think that ] and ] have a more accurate evaluation of sexuality than ], even from the viewpoint of the famous scientificity. It is not the ] stretched out on the couch who speaks to us of love, of its force and its despair, but the mute stroll of the ], ] ] in the mountains and under the stars, the immobile voyage in intensities on the ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 321).</ref>}} | |||
Deleuze and Guattari's "]" is a ] social and political analysis that responds to the ] tendencies of ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 54, 108, 127-128, 325-xx). Deleuze and Guattari argue that there was no specific "turning point" in the theoretical development of ] at which it became ]; instead, it contained "revolutionary, reformist, and reactionary elements" from the start. "We refuse to play 'take it or leave it'," they write. This politically-ambiguous mixture of tendencies in psychoanalysis arises, they argue, from its ambiguous relationship with its discoveries: "As if every great doctrine were not a ''combined formation,'' constructed from bits and pieces, various intermingled codes and flux, partial elements and derivatives, that constitute its very life or becoming. As if we could reproach someone for having an ambiguous relationship with psychoanalysis, without first mentioning that psychoanalysis owes its existence to a relationship, theoretically and practically ambiguous, with what it discovers and the forces that it wields" (1972, 128). Despite the militancy of the analyses proposed within Deleuze and Guattari's project, they insist that "no political program will be elaborated within the framework of schizoanalysis" (1972, 415). Guattari developed the implications of their theory for a concrete political project in his book with the Italian ] philosopher ], ''Communists Like Us'' (1985). For the variable relations between the socius of capital and revolutionary autonomous territorialities, see Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 410).</ref> It proposes a functional evaluation of the direct ] of desire—whether revolutionary or reactionary—in a field that is social, biological, historical, and geographical.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 93, 115, 322-333, 354, 400).</ref> | |||
Deleuze and Guattari develop four theses of schizoanalysis: | |||
# Every unconscious libidinal investment is social and bears upon a socio-historical field. | # Every unconscious libidinal investment is social and bears upon a socio-historical field. | ||
# Unconscious libidinal investments of group or desire are distinct from preconscious investments of class or interest. | # Unconscious libidinal investments of group or desire are distinct from preconscious investments of class or interest. | ||
Line 31: | Line 51: | ||
# Social libidinal investments are distinguished according to two poles: a paranoiac, reactionary, fascisizing pole and a schizoid revolutionary pole.<ref>First thesis (1972, 375); second thesis (1972, 377); third thesis (1972, 390); fourth thesis (1972, 401).</ref> | # Social libidinal investments are distinguished according to two poles: a paranoiac, reactionary, fascisizing pole and a schizoid revolutionary pole.<ref>First thesis (1972, 375); second thesis (1972, 377); third thesis (1972, 390); fourth thesis (1972, 401).</ref> | ||
In contrast to the psychoanalytic conception, schizoanalysis assumes that the ] does not need to be de-sexualised, ], or to go by way of metamorphoses in order to invest economic or political factors |
In contrast to the psychoanalytic conception, schizoanalysis assumes that the ] does not need to be de-sexualised, ], or to go by way of metamorphoses in order to invest economic or political factors. "The truth is," Deleuze and Guattari explain, "sexuality is everywhere: the way a bureaucrat fondles his records, a judge administers justice, a businessman causes money to circulate; the way the ] fucks the ]; and so on. Flags, nations, armies, banks get a lot of people aroused."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 322–333).</ref> In the ], desire is part of the economic, infrastructural "base" of society, they argue, not an ], subjective "superstructure."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114, 378). In failing to recognise this, Deleuze and Guattari argue, ] fell short of the materialist psychiatry towards which he aimed and was unable to provide an adequate answer to his question "Why did the masses desire fascism?"</ref> | ||
] libidinal investments of desire coexist without necessarily coinciding with ] investments made according to the ]s or ideological ] of the ] (individual or collective) who desires.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114, 322). Deleuze and Guattari qualify this distinction between unconscious desire and preconscious need or interest when they write: "It is doubtless true that interests predispose us to a given libidinal investment"; however, they go on to insist once again that the interests "are not identical with this investment" (1972, 379).</ref><!--Explain priority of social, group investments over individual, familial investments of psychoanalysis--> | ] libidinal investments of desire coexist without necessarily coinciding with ] investments made according to the ]s or ideological ] of the ] (individual or collective) who desires.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114, 322). Deleuze and Guattari qualify this distinction between unconscious desire and preconscious need or interest when they write: "It is doubtless true that interests predispose us to a given libidinal investment"; however, they go on to insist once again that the interests "are not identical with this investment" (1972, 379).</ref><!--Explain priority of social, group investments over individual, familial investments of psychoanalysis--> | ||
<blockquote>A form of social production and reproduction, along with its economic and financial mechanisms, its political formations, and so on, can be desired as such, in whole or in part, independently of the interests of the desiring-subject. It was not by means of a metaphor, even a paternal metaphor, that ] was able to sexually arouse the fascists. It is not by means of a metaphor that a banking or stock-market transaction, a claim, a coupon, a credit, is able to arouse people who are not necessarily bankers. And what about the effects of money that grows, money that produces more money? There are socioeconomic "complexes" that are also veritable ], and that communicate a voluptuous wave from the top to the bottom of their hierarchy (the ]). And ], ], and the ] have nothing to do with this, because they depend on it rather than being its impetus.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, |
<blockquote>A form of social production and reproduction, along with its economic and financial mechanisms, its political formations, and so on, can be desired as such, in whole or in part, independently of the interests of the desiring-subject. It was not by means of a metaphor, even a paternal metaphor, that ] was able to sexually arouse the fascists. It is not by means of a metaphor that a banking or stock-market transaction, a claim, a coupon, a credit, is able to arouse people who are not necessarily bankers. And what about the effects of money that grows, money that produces more money? There are socioeconomic "complexes" that are also veritable ], and that communicate a voluptuous wave from the top to the bottom of their hierarchy (the ]). And ], ], and the ] have nothing to do with this, because they depend on it rather than being its impetus.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114–115).</ref></blockquote> | ||
Schizoanalysis seeks to show how "in the subject who desires, desire can be made to desire its own repression—whence the role of the ] in the circuit connecting desire to the social sphere."<ref name="SkizoAnDef">Section 2.5 ''The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation'', pp. 98, 105</ref> Desire produces "even the most repressive and the most deadly forms of social reproduction."<ref name=ao31>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31).</ref> | Schizoanalysis seeks to show how "in the subject who desires, desire can be made to desire its own repression—whence the role of the ] in the circuit connecting desire to the social sphere."<ref name="SkizoAnDef">Section 2.5 ''The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation'', pp. 98, 105</ref> Desire produces "even the most repressive and the most deadly forms of social reproduction."<ref name=ao31>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31).</ref> | ||
===Desiring machines and social production=== | ====Desiring machines and social production==== | ||
{{Main|Desiring-production}} | {{Main|Desiring-production}} | ||
The traditional understanding of desire assumes an exclusive distinction between "production" and "acquisition."<ref name=ao26>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 26).</ref> This line of thought—which has dominated Western ] throughout its history and stretches from ] to ] and ]—understands desire through the concept of acquisition, insofar as desire seeks to acquire something that it lacks. This dominant conception, Deleuze and Guattari argue, is a form of philosophical ] |
The traditional understanding of desire assumes an exclusive distinction between "production" and "acquisition."<ref name=ao26>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 26).</ref> This line of thought—which has dominated Western ] throughout its history and stretches from ] to ] and ]—understands desire through the concept of acquisition, insofar as desire seeks to acquire something that it lacks. This dominant conception, Deleuze and Guattari argue, is a form of philosophical ].<ref name="ao26"/> Alternative conceptions, which treat desire as a positive, productive force, have received far less attention; the ideas of the small number of philosophers who have developed them, however, are of crucial importance to Deleuze and Guattari's project: principally ]'s ] and ]'s ].<ref><!--Requires citation for Nietzsche and Spinoza link - Michael Hardt makes the argument in his web-notes-->]'s analysis of superstitious beliefs, hallucinations, and fantasies in his '']'' treats desire as a creative, productive force, Deleuze and Guattari explain, although his analysis limits its effects to the production of a psychic reality and thereby retains the validity of desire-as-lack; (1972, 26–27).</ref> Deleuze and Guattari argue that desire is a positive process of production that produces reality.<ref name=ao28>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28).</ref> On the basis of three "passive syntheses" (partly modelled on ]'s ] from his '']''), desire engineers "partial objects, flows, and bodies" in the service of the ] of the unconscious.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28), Guattari (1992, 15), and Holland (1999, 25).</ref> In this model, desire does not "lack" its object; instead, desire "is a machine, and the object of desire is another machine connected to it."<ref name=ao28/> On this basis, Deleuze and Guattari develop their notion of ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 1–9).</ref> Since desire produces reality, social production, with its ] and ], is "purely and simply desiring-production itself under determinate conditions."<ref name=ao31/> | ||
Like their contemporary, ], and like Reich before them, Deleuze and Guattari make a connection between ] and ]. By means of their concept of desiring-production, however, their manner of doing so is radically different. They describe a universe composed of desiring-machines, all of which are connected to one another: "There are no desiring-machines that exist outside the social machines that they form on a large scale; and no social machines without the desiring machines that inhabit them on a small scale."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 373).</ref> When they insist that a social field may be invested by desire directly, they oppose Freud's concept of ], which posits an inherent dualism between desiring-machines and social production: "The truth is that sexuality is everywhere: the way a bureaucrat fondles his records, a judge administers justice, a businessman causes money to circulate; the way the bourgeoisie fucks the proletariat; and so on."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deleuze and Guattari |title=Anti-Oedipus |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1972 |pages=293}}</ref> This dualism, they argue, limited and trapped the revolutionary potential of the theories of Laing and Reich. Deleuze and Guattari develop a critique of Freud and Lacan's psychoanalysis, ], and ] (with its insistence on a necessary mediation between the two realms of desire and the social). Deleuze and Guattari's concept of sexuality is not limited to the interaction of male and female ]s, but instead posits a ] of flows that a "hundred thousand" desiring-machines create within their connected universe; Deleuze and Guattari contrast this "non-human, molecular sexuality" to "molar" ] ]: "making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand," they write, adding that "we always make love with worlds."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 323, 325).</ref> | |||
Deleuze and Guattari argue that desire is a positive process of production that produces reality.<ref name=ao28>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28).</ref> On the basis of three "passive syntheses" (partly modelled on ] ] from his '']''), desire engineers "partial objects, flows, and bodies" in the service of the ] of the unconscious.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28), Guattari (1992, 15), and Holland (1999, 25).</ref> In this model, desire does not "lack" its object; instead, desire "is a machine, and the object of desire is another machine connected to it."<ref name=ao28/> On this basis, Deleuze and Guattari develop their notion of ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 1-9).</ref> Since desire produces reality, social production, with its ] and ], is "purely and simply desiring-production itself under determinate conditions."<ref name=ao31/> | |||
====Reframing the Oedipal complex==== | |||
Like their contemporary, ], and like Wilhelm Reich before them, Deleuze and Guattari make a connection between ] and ]. By means of their concept of desiring-production, however, their manner of doing so is radically different. They describe a universe composed of desiring-machines, all of which are connected to one another: "There are no desiring-machines that exist outside the social machines that they form on a large scale; and no social machines without the desiring machines that inhabit them on a small scale."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 373).</ref> When they insist that a social field may be invested by desire directly, they oppose Freud's concept of ], which posits an inherent ] between desiring-machines and social production. This dualism, they argue, limited and trapped the revolutionary potential of the theories of Laing and Reich. ''Anti-Oedipus'' develops a critique of Freud and Lacan's psychoanalysis, ], and ] (with its insistence on a necessary mediation between the two realms of desire and the social).<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 30-32, 104-105, 351-353).</ref> | |||
The "anti-" part of their critique of the Freudian ] begins with that original model's articulation of society{{Clarify|date=November 2009}} based on the ] triangle of ], mother and child.{{Page needed|date=August 2010}} Criticizing psychoanalysis "]", they want to show that the oedipal model of the family is a kind of organization that must colonize its members, repress their desires, and give them complexes if it is to function as an organizing principle of ].{{Page needed|date=August 2010}} Instead of conceiving the "family" as a sphere contained by a larger "social" sphere, and giving a logical preeminence to the family triangle, Deleuze and Guattari argue that the family should be ''opened'' onto the social, as in ]'s conception of the ], and that underneath the pseudo-opposition between family (composed of ]) and social, lies the relationship between pre-individual desire and social production. | |||
Furthermore, they argue that ] is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 34–35)</ref> and capitalism keeps enforcing ] as a way of maintaining ]ity. However, they oppose a non-clinical concept of "schizophrenia" as ] to the clinical end-result "schizophrenic" (i.e. they do not intend to romanticize "mental disorders"; instead, they show, like Foucault, that "psychiatric disorders" are always second to something else). | |||
Deleuze and Guattari's concept of sexuality is not limited to the interaction of male and female ]s, but instead posits a ] of flows that a "hundred thousand" desiring-machines create within their connected universe; Deleuze and Guattari contrast this "non-human, molecular sexuality" to "molar" ] ]: "making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand," they write, adding that "we always make love with worlds."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 323, 325).</ref> | |||
=== |
====Body without organs==== | ||
The "anti-" part of their critique of the Freudian ] begins with that original model's articulation of society{{Clarify|date=November 2009}} based on the ] triangle of ], mother and child.{{Page needed|date=August 2010}} Criticizing psychoanalysis "]", they want to show that the oedipal model of the family is a kind of organization that must colonize its members, repress their desires, and give them complexes if it is to function as an organizing principle of ].{{Page needed|date=August 2010}} Instead of conceiving the "family" as a sphere contained by a larger "social" sphere, and giving a logical preeminence to the family triangle, Deleuze and Guattari argue that the family should be ''opened'' onto the social, as in ]'s conception of the ''Open'', and that underneath the pseudo-opposition between family (composed of ]) and social, lies the relationship between pre-individual desire and social production. | |||
Furthermore, they argue that ] is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself{{Page needed|date=August 2010}} and capitalism keeps enforcing ] as a way of maintaining ]ity. However, they oppose a non-clinical concept of "schizophrenia" as ] to the clinical end-result "schizophrenic" (i.e. they do not intend to romanticize "mental disorders"; instead, they show, as Foucault, that "psychiatric disorders" are always second to something else). | |||
===Body without organs=== | |||
] as an egg: "it is crisscrossed with axes and thresholds, with ]s and ]s and ] lines, traversed by ''gradients'' marking the transitions and the ], the destinations of the ] developing along these particular vectors."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 21).</ref>]] | ] as an egg: "it is crisscrossed with axes and thresholds, with ]s and ]s and ] lines, traversed by ''gradients'' marking the transitions and the ], the destinations of the ] developing along these particular vectors."<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 21).</ref>]] | ||
{{Main|Body without organs}} | {{Main|Body without organs}} | ||
Deleuze and Guattari develop their concept of the "]" (often rendered as BwO) from ]'s text "To Have Done With the Judgment of God". Since desire can take on as many forms as there are persons to implement it, it must seek new channels and different combinations to realize itself, forming a body without organs for every instance. Desire is not limited to the affections of a ], nor the material state of the subject. Bodies without organs cannot be forced or willed into existence, however, and they are essentially the product of a zero-intensity condition that Deleuze and Guattari link to ] schizophrenia that also becomes "the model of death". | |||
=== |
====Criticism of psychoanalysts==== | ||
Deleuze and Guattari address the case of ], ] and ], who were prominent members of the most respected psychoanalytic association (the ]). They argue that this case demonstrates that psychoanalysis enthusiastically embraces a ]:<ref>section 2.4 ''The disjunctive synthesis of recording'' p. 89</ref> | Deleuze and Guattari address the case of ], ] and ], who were prominent members of the most respected psychoanalytic association (the ]). They argue that this case demonstrates that psychoanalysis enthusiastically embraces a ]:<ref>section 2.4 ''The disjunctive synthesis of recording'' p. 89</ref> | ||
<blockquote>As to those who refuse to be oedipalized in one form or another, at one end or the other in the treatment, the psychoanalyst is there to call the asylum or the police for help. The police on our side!—never did psychoanalysis better display its taste for supporting the movement of social repression, and for participating in it with enthusiasm. notice of the dominant tone in the most respected associations: consider Dr. Mendel and the Drs Stéphane, the state of fury that is theirs, and their literally police-like appeal at the thought that someone might try to escape the Oedipal dragnet. Oedipus is one of those things that becomes all the more dangerous the less people believe in it; then the cops are there to replace the high priests.</blockquote> | <blockquote>As to those who refuse to be oedipalized in one form or another, at one end or the other in the treatment, the psychoanalyst is there to call the asylum or the police for help. The police on our side!—never did psychoanalysis better display its taste for supporting the movement of social repression, and for participating in it with enthusiasm. notice of the dominant tone in the most respected associations: consider Dr. Mendel and the Drs Stéphane, the state of fury that is theirs, and their literally police-like appeal at the thought that someone might try to escape the Oedipal dragnet. Oedipus is one of those things that becomes all the more dangerous the less people believe in it; then the cops are there to replace the high priests.</blockquote> | ||
Bela Grunberger and Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel were two psychoanalysts from the ] of the International Psychoanalytical Association. In November 1968 they disguised themselves under the pseudonym André Stéphane and published '' |
Bela Grunberger and Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel were two psychoanalysts from the ] of the International Psychoanalytical Association. In November 1968 they disguised themselves under the pseudonym André Stéphane and published ''L'univers Contestationnaire'', in which they argued that the left-wing rioters of ] were totalitarian stalinists, and proceeded to psychoanalyze them as having a sordid ] caught up in an Oedipal revolt against the Father.<ref name="Rabate">] (2009) '''' published in ], Number 6 • 2009 pp. 28–45</ref><ref name="Stephane">André Stéphane , L'Univers Contestationnaire (Paris: Payot, 1969).</ref> ] regarded Grunberger and Chasseguet-Smirgel's book with great disdain; while they were still disguised under the pseudonym, Lacan remarked that he was certain that neither author belonged to his school, as none would abase themselves to such low drivel.<ref name="LacanStephane">], '']'', Seminar XVI ''D'un Autre à l'autre'', 1968–9, p. 266</ref> The IPa analysts responded with an accusation against the ] of "intellectual terrorism."<ref name="Rabate"/> Gérard Mendel published ''La révolte contre le père'' (1968) and ''Pour décoloniser l'enfant'' (1971). | ||
===Fascism, the family, and the desire for oppression=== | |||
===Schizoanalytic slogans=== | |||
====Desiring self-repression==== | |||
{{cquote|A schizophrenic out for a walk is a better model than a neurotic lying on the analyst's couch. A breath of fresh air, a relationship with the outside world.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 2).</ref>}} | |||
Deleuze and Guattari address a fundamental problem of ]: the contradictory phenomenon whereby an individual or a group comes to desire their own ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31); see also Deleuze and Foucault (1972, 212).</ref> This contradiction had been mentioned briefly by the 17th-century philosopher Spinoza: "Why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?"<ref>In '']'', ''Preface''. The original Latin text reads: "ut pro servido, tanquam pro salute pugnent".</ref> That is, how is it possible that people cry for "More taxes! Less bread!"? Wilhelm Reich discussed the phenomenon in his 1933 book '']'':<ref>Anti-Oedipus, section I.4 ''A Materialist Psychiatry''</ref><ref>Wilhelm Reich (1946) '']'', section I.3 ''The Problem of Mass Psychology'', originally published in 1933</ref> | |||
{{cquote|Only one way to spend time on the couch: schizoanalyze the psychoanalyst.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 400).</ref>}} | |||
{{cquote|Class struggle goes to the heart of the ordeal of desire.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 389).</ref>}} | |||
{{cquote|Schizoanalysis is the variable analysis of the ''n'' sexes in a subject, beyond the anthropomorphic representation that society imposes on this subject, and with which it represents its own sexuality. The schizoanalytic slogan of the desiring-revolution will be first of all: to each its own sexes.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 296).</ref>}} | |||
<blockquote>The astonishing thing is not that some people steal or that others occasionally go out on strike, but rather that all those who are starving do not steal as a regular practice, and all those who are exploited are not continually out on strike: after centuries of exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humiliated and enslaved, to such a point, indeed, that they ''actually want'' humiliation and slavery not only for others but for themselves?"</blockquote> | |||
==Fascism, the family, and the desire for oppression== | |||
In a preface written for the English-language edition, ] describes ''Anti-Oedipus'' as a contribution towards the fight against ]—he suggests that it may be called "an ''Introduction to the Non-Fascist Life''."<ref>Foucault (1977, xv). ] describes ] as one of three "adversaries" of ''Anti-Oedipus'' (though it is "the major enemy"); the other two are the "bureaucrats of the revolution" (traditional ]) and the "poor technicians of desire" (] and ]); see (1977, xiv).</ref> The book attempts to track down "all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives."<ref>Foucault (1977, xvi).</ref> Thus, it is concerned "not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini," he stresses, "but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploit us."<ref>Foucault (1977, xiv-xv). Guattari, speaking in 1974, stressed the genealogical continuity of contemporary fascism with its historical manifestations and precursors: "Thus, we see that the analysis of the molecular components of fascism can deal with quite a variety of areas. It is the same fascism under different forms which continues to operate in the family, in school, or in a trade union. A struggle against the modern forms of ] can be organized only if we are prepared to recognize the continuity of this machine" (1995, 234-235).</ref> | |||
===Desiring self-repression=== | |||
Deleuze and Guattari address a fundamental problem of ]: the contradictory phenomenon whereby an individual or a group comes to desire their own ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31); see also Deleuze and Foucault (1972, 212).</ref> This contradiction had been mentioned briefly by the 17th-century philosopher ]: "Why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?"<ref>In '']'', ''Preface''. The original Latin text reads: "ut pro servido, tanquam pro salute pugnent".</ref> That is, how is it possible that people cry for "More taxes! Less bread!"? Wilhelm Reich discussed the phenomenon it in his 1933 book '']'':<ref>Anti-Oedipus, section I.4 ''A Materialist Psychiatry''</ref><ref>Wilhelm Reich (1946) '']'', section I.3 ''The problem of mass psychology'', originally published in 1933</ref> | |||
<blockquote>the astonishing thing is not that some people steal or that others occasionally go out on strike, but rather that all those who are starving do not steal as a regular practice, and all those who are exploited are not continually out on strike: after centuries of exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humiliated and enslaved, to such a point, indeed, that they ''actually want'' humiliation and slavery not only for others but for themselves?"</blockquote> | |||
To address this question, Deleuze and Guattari examine the relationships between social organisation, ], and desire, particularly in relation to the ] "]" and its ] mechanisms of ] ("daddy-mommy-me"). They argue that the ] is the most powerful agent of ], under which the desires of the child and the adolescent are repressed and perverted.<ref name="PsychicRepression">Section II.7 ''Social Repression and Psychic repression'', pp. 123–32</ref><ref>Holland (1999) p. 57</ref> Such psychological repression forms docile individuals that are easy targets for social repression.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).</ref> | To address this question, Deleuze and Guattari examine the relationships between social organisation, ], and desire, particularly in relation to the ] "]" and its ] mechanisms of ] ("daddy-mommy-me"). They argue that the ] is the most powerful agent of ], under which the desires of the child and the adolescent are repressed and perverted.<ref name="PsychicRepression">Section II.7 ''Social Repression and Psychic repression'', pp. 123–32</ref><ref>Holland (1999) p. 57</ref> Such psychological repression forms docile individuals that are easy targets for social repression.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).</ref> | ||
By using this powerful mechanism, the dominant class, "making cuts (''coupures'') and segregations pass over into a social field", can ultimately control individuals or groups, ensuring general submission. This explains the ] phenomenon in which people "act manifestly counter to their class interests—when they rally to the interests and ideals of a class that their own objective situation should lead them to combat".<ref name="AE104">Anti-Oedipus, section 2.5 ''The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation'', Desire and the infrastructure, p.104</ref> Deleuze and Guattari's critique of these mechanisms seeks to promote a revolutionary liberation of desire: | By using this powerful mechanism, the dominant class, "making cuts (''coupures'') and segregations pass over into a social field", can ultimately control individuals or groups, ensuring general submission. This explains the ] phenomenon in which people "act manifestly counter to their class interests—when they rally to the interests and ideals of a class that their own objective situation should lead them to combat".<ref name="AE104">Anti-Oedipus, section 2.5 ''The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation'', Desire and the infrastructure, p.104</ref> Deleuze and Guattari's critique of these mechanisms seeks to promote a revolutionary liberation of desire: | ||
<blockquote>If desire is repressed, it is because every position of desire, no matter how small, is capable of calling into question the established order of a society: not that desire is asocial, on the contrary. But it is explosive; there is no desiring-machine capable of being assembled without demolishing entire social sectors. Despite what some revolutionaries think about this, desire is revolutionary in its |
<blockquote>If desire is repressed, it is because every position of desire, no matter how small, is capable of calling into question the established order of a society: not that desire is asocial, on the contrary. But it is explosive; there is no desiring-machine capable of being assembled without demolishing entire social sectors. Despite what some revolutionaries think about this, desire is revolutionary in its essence—desire, not left-wing holidays!—and no society can tolerate a position of real desire without its structures of exploitation, servitude, and hierarchy being compromised.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 126–127).</ref></blockquote> | ||
===The family under capitalism as an agent of repression=== | ====The family under capitalism as an agent of repression==== | ||
The ] is the agent to which ] |
The ] is the agent to which ] delegates the ] of the desires of the child.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 130–131).</ref> Psychological repression is distinguished from ] insofar as it works ].<ref name="Deleuze and Guattari 1972, 130">Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 130).</ref> Through it, Deleuze and Guattari argue, parents transmit their angst and irrational fears to their child and bind the child's sexual desires to feelings of shame and guilt. Psychological repression is strongly linked with social ], which levers on it. It is thanks to psychological repression that individuals are transformed into docile servants of social repression who come to desire self-repression and who accept a miserable life as employees for capitalism.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).<!--Replaced previous citation from "Social repression and psychic repression" as didn't support this; however, as it stands it still requires a further citation to justify everything here; 396 says family creates docile subjects for social repression--></ref> A capitalist society needs a powerful tool to counteract the explosive force of desire, which has the potential to threaten its structures of exploitation, servitude, and hierarchy; the ] is precisely the powerful tool able to counteract those forces.<ref name="pp119-20">pp.115, 119–20</ref> | ||
The action of the family not only performs a psychological repression of desire, but it disfigures it, giving rise to a consequent neurotic desire, the perversion of incestuous drives and desiring self-repression.<ref name="pp119-20"/> The ] arises from this double operation: "It is in one and the same movement that the repressive social production is replaced by the repressing family, and that the latter offers a displaced image of ] that represents the repressed as incestuous familial drives."<ref name="Deleuze and Guattari 1972, 130"/> | |||
Psychological repression is strongly linked with social ], which levers on it. It is thanks to psychological repression that individuals are transformed into docile servants of social repression who come to desire self-repression and who accept a miserable life as employees for capitalism.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).<!--Replaced previous citation from "Social repression and psychic repression" as didn't support this; however, as it stands it still requires a further citation to justify everything here; 396 says family creates docile subjects for social repression--></ref> A capitalist society needs a powerful tool to counteract the explosive force of desire, which has the potential to threaten its structures of exploitation, servitude, and hierarchy; the ] is precisely the powerful tool able to counteract those forces.<ref name="pp119-20">pp.115, 119-20</ref> | |||
===Capitalism and the political economy of desire=== | |||
The action of the family not only performs a psychological repression of desire, but it disfigures it, giving rise to a consequent neurotic desire, the perversion of incestuous drives and desiring self-repression,<ref name="pp119-20"/> as also said by Foucault in the preface, loving power and desiring "the very thing that dominates and exploit us."<ref name="Foucaultp13">Foucault's preface, p.xiii</ref> The ] arises from this double operation: "''It is in one and the same movement that the repressive social production is replaced by the repressing family, and that the latter offers a displaced image of ] that represents the repressed as incestuous familial drives.''"<ref name="Deleuze and Guattari 1972, 130"/> | |||
====Territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization==== | |||
==Capitalism and the political economy of desire== | |||
Although (like most Deleuzo-Guattarian terms) ] has a purposeful variance in meaning throughout their oeuvre, it can be roughly described as a move away from a rigidly imposed hierarchical, ] context, which seeks to package things (concepts, objects, etc.) into discrete categorised units with singular coded meanings or identities, towards a ] zone of ] and fluctuant identity, where meanings and operations flow freely between said things, resulting in a dynamic, constantly changing set of interconnected entities with fuzzy individual boundaries. Importantly, the concept implies a continuum, not a simple binary – every actual '']'' (a flexible term alluding to the heterogeneous composition of any complex system, individual, social, geological) is marked by simultaneous movements of territorialization (maintenance) and of deterritorialization (dissipation). Various means of deterritorializing are alluded to by the authors in their chapter "How to Make Yourself A Body Without Organs" in ''A Thousand Plateaus'', including psychoactives such as ]. Experientially, the effects of such substances can include a loosening (relative deterritorialization) of the worldview of the user (i.e. his/her beliefs, models, etc.), subsequently leading to an antiredeterritorialization (remapping of beliefs, models, etc.) that is not necessarily identical to the prior territory. | |||
=== Territorialisation, deterritorialisation, and reterritorialisation=== | |||
Although (like most Deleuzo-Guattarian terms) ] has a purposeful variance in meaning throughout their oeuvre, it can be roughly described as a move away from a rigidly imposed hierarchical, ] context, which seeks to package things (concepts, objects, etc.) into discrete categorised units with singular coded meanings or identities, towards a ] zone of ] and fluctuant identity, where meanings and operations flow freely between said things, resulting in a dynamic, constantly changing set of interconnected entities with fuzzy individual boundaries. | |||
Deterritorialization is closely related to Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts such as '']'', ''destratification'' and ''the ]/BwO'' (a term borrowed from ]), and is sometimes defined in such a way as to be partly interchangeable with these terms (most specifically in the second part of ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'', ''A Thousand Plateaus''). Deleuze and Guattari posit that dramatic ] often follows relative deterritorialization, while absolute deterritorialization is just that... absolute deterritorialization without any reterritorialization. | |||
Importantly, the concept implies a continuum, not a simple binary - every actual '']'' (a flexible term alluding to the heterogeneous composition of any complex system, individual, social, geological) is marked by simultaneous movements of territorialization (maintenance) and of deterritorialization (dissipation). | |||
===Terminology borrowed from science=== | |||
Various means of deterritorializing are alluded to by the authors in their chapter "How to Make Yourself A Body Without Organs" in ''A Thousand Plateaus'', including psychoactives such as peyote. Experientially, the effects of such substances can include a loosening (relative deterritorialization) of the worldview of the user (i.e. his/her beliefs, models, etc.), subsequently leading to an antiredeterritorialization (remapping of beliefs, models, etc.) that is not necessarily identical to the prior territory. | |||
] on a ]]] | |||
During the course of their argument, Deleuze and Guattari borrow a number of concepts from different scientific fields. To describe the process of desire, they draw on ], the branch of physics that studies how a fluid flows through space. They describe society in terms of forces acting in a ]. They also relate processes of their "]" to the ] of an egg, from which they borrow the concept of an inductor.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 92–93, 100–101). Deleuze and Guattari develop this relation further in the chapter "November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?" in their sequel to ''Anti-Oedipus'', ''A Thousand Plateaus'' (1980, 165–184).</ref> | |||
==Reception and influence== | |||
Deterritorialization is closely related to Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts such as '']'', '']'' and ''the ]/BwO'' (a term borrowed from ]), and is sometimes defined in such a way as to be partly interchangeable with these terms (most specifically in the second part of '']'', ''A Thousand Plateaus''). | |||
The philosopher ] wrote that ''Anti-Oedipus'' can best be read as an "art", in the sense that is conveyed by the term "erotic art." Foucault considered the book's three "adversaries" as the "bureaucrats of the revolution", the "poor technicians of desire" (psychoanalysts and semiologists), and "the major enemy", fascism. Foucault used the term "fascism" to refer "not only historical fascism, the fascism of ] and ]...but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us." Foucault added that ''Anti-Oedipus'' is "a book of ethics, the first book of ethics to be written in France in quite a long time", and suggested that this explains its popular success. Foucault proposed that the book could be called ''Introduction to the Non-Fascist Life''. Foucault argued that putting the principles espoused in ''Anti-Oedipus'' into practice involves freeing political action from "unitary and totalizing paranoia" and withdrawing allegiance "from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an access to reality."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Foucault, Michel |author2=Deleuze, Gilles |author3=Guattari, Félix |title=Anti-Oedipus |url=https://archive.org/details/antioedipuscapit0000dele |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |year=1992 |pages=xii–xiii |isbn=0-8166-1225-0 }}</ref> | |||
The psychiatrist ] described ''Anti-Oedipus'' as "a magnificent vision of madness as a revolutionary force", crediting its authors with using "the psychoanalytic language and the discourse of Saussure (and his successors)" to pit "linguistics against itself in what is already proving to be an historic act of depassment."<ref>{{cite book |author=Cooper, David |title=The Language of Madness |publisher=Allen Lane |location=London |year=1978 |page=138 |isbn=0-7139-1118-2 }}</ref> The critic ] wrote that when Deleuze and Guattari "indicted Lacanian psychoanalysis as a capitalist disorder" and "pilloried analysts as the most sinister priest-manipulators of a psychotic society", their "demonstration was widely regarded as unanswerable" and "devastated the already shrinking Lacanian camp in Paris."<ref>{{cite book |author=Crews, Frederick |title=Skeptical Engagements |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=1986 |page= |isbn=0-19-503950-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/skepticalengagem00crew/page/176 }}</ref> The philosopher ] described ''Anti-Oedipus'' as its era's publishing sensation, and, along with ]'s '']'' (1974), a key text in "the micropolitics of desire."<ref>{{cite book |author=Kellner, Douglas |title=Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond |url=https://archive.org/details/jeanbaudrillardf0000kell |url-access=registration |publisher=Polity Press |location=Cambridge |year=1989 |pages=, 223 |isbn=0-7456-0562-1 }}</ref> The psychoanalyst ] wrote that Deleuze and Guattari provided a definitive challenge to the mystique of the family, but that they did so in the spirit of nihilism, commenting, "Immersion in their world of 'schizoculture' and desiring machines is enough to make a person yearn for the secure madness of the nuclear family."<ref name="Kovel">{{cite book |author=Kovel, Joel |title=History and Spirit: An Inquiry into the Philosophy of Liberation |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |year=1991 |pages= |isbn=0-8070-2916-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyspiritinq00kove/page/82 }}</ref> | |||
The authors posit that dramatic ] often follows relative deterritorialization, while absolute deterritorialization is just that... absolute deterritorialization without any reterritorialization. | |||
Anthony Elliott described ''Anti-Oedipus'' as a "celebrated" work that "scandalized French psychoanalysis and generated heated dispute among intellectuals" and "offered a timely critique of psychoanalysis and Lacanianism at the time of its publication in France". However, he added that most commentators would now agree that "schizoanalysis" is fatally flawed, and that there are several major objections that can be made against ''Anti-Oedipus''. In his view, even if "subjectivity may be usefully decentred and deconstructed", it is wrong to assume that "desire is naturally rebellious and subversive." He believed that Deleuze and Guattari see the individual as "no more than various organs, intensities and flows, rather than a complex, contradictory identity" and make false emancipatory claims for schizophrenia. He also argued that Deleuze and Guattari's work produces difficulties for the interpretation of contemporary culture, because of their "rejection of institutionality as such", which obscures the difference between liberal democracy and fascism and leaves Deleuze and Guattari with "little more than a romantic, idealized fantasy of the 'schizoid hero{{'"}}. He wrote that ''Anti-Oedipus'' follows a similar theoretical direction to Lyotard's ''Libidinal Economy'', though he sees several significant differences between Deleuze and Guattari on the one hand and Lyotard on the other.<ref>{{cite book |author=Elliott, Anthony |title=Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction |publisher=Palgrave |location=New York |year=2002 |pages=157, 161–163 |isbn=0-333-91912-2 }}</ref> | |||
==Terminology borrowed from science== | |||
] on a ].]] | |||
During the course of their argument, Deleuze & Guattari borrow a number of concepts from different scientific fields. To describe the process of desire, they draw on ], the branch of physics that studies how a fluid flows through space. They describe society in terms of forces acting in a ]. They also relate processes of their "]" to the ] of an egg, from which they borrow the concept of an ].<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 92-93, 100-101). Deleuze and Guattari develop this relation further in the chapter "November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Boydy Without Organs?" in their sequel to ''Anti-Oedipus'', ''A Thousand Plateaus'' (1980, 165-184).</ref> | |||
Some of Guattari's diary entries, correspondence with Deleuze, and notes on the development of the book were published posthumously as '']'' (2004).<ref>Guattari (2004).</ref> The philosopher ] and the psychologist ] wrote that rather than having their confidence shaken by the "provocations and magnificent rhetorical violence" of ''Anti-Oedipus'', the psychoanalytic profession felt that the debates raised by the book legitimated their discipline.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel |author2=Shamdasani, Sonu |title=The Freud Files: An Inquiry into the History of Psychoanalysis |url=https://archive.org/details/freudfilesinquir00borc |url-access=limited |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2012 |pages=–1 |isbn=978-0-521-72978-9 }}</ref> Joshua Ramey wrote that while the passage into Deleuze and Guattari's "body without organs" is "fraught with danger and even pain ... the point of ''Anti-Oedipus'' is not to make glamorous that violence or that suffering. Rather, the point is to show that there is a viable level of Dinoysian experience."<ref>{{cite book |author=Ramey, Joshua |title=The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham |year=2012 |page=199 |isbn=978-0-8223-5229-7 }}</ref> The philosopher Alan D. Schrift wrote in '']'' (2015) that ''Anti-Oedipus'' was "read as a major articulation of the philosophy of desire and a profound critique of psychoanalysis."<ref>{{cite book |author1=Schrift, Alan D. |editor=Audi, Robert |title=The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2017 |pages=251 |isbn=978-1-107-64379-6 }}</ref> | |||
==Influence== | |||
] called ''Anti-Oedipus'', "a magnificent vision of madness as a revolutionary force, the decoding, deterritorializing refusal of fixity and outside definition by schizophrenia (they insist on this term) as opposed to a paranoid-capitalist pole and as a depassment of the oedipian, familial neurotic state of non-existence (paranoid-fascist as opposed to revolutionary schizophrenia - but clearly showing that 'the schizophrenic' is not 'the revolutionary', nor the revolutionary schizoid). These authors effectively used the psychoanalytic language and the discourse of Saussure (and his successors), linguistics against itself in what is already proving to be an historic act of depassment."<ref>{{cite book |author=Cooper, David |title=The Language of Madness |publisher=Allen Lane |location=London |year=1978 |page=138 |isbn=0 7139 1118 2 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
{{Portal|Philosophy}} | {{Portal|Philosophy}} | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Line 121: | Line 129: | ||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
* ]. 2004. ''Desert Islands and Other Texts, |
* ]. 2004. ''Desert Islands and Other Texts, 1953–1974.'' Trans. Michael Taormina. Ed. David Lapoujade. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents ser. Los Angeles and New York: Semiotext(e). {{ISBN|1-58435-018-0}}. | ||
* Deleuze, Gilles and ]. 1972. "Intellectuals and Power." In Deleuze (2004, |
* Deleuze, Gilles and ]. 1972. "Intellectuals and Power." In Deleuze (2004, 206–213). | ||
* Deleuze, Gilles and ]. 1972. '''''Anti-Oedipus'''''. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of '']''. 2 vols. |
* Deleuze, Gilles and ]. 1972. '''''Anti-Oedipus'''''. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of '']''. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of ''L'Anti-Oedipe''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. {{ISBN|0-8264-7695-3}}. | ||
* ---. 1980. ''A Thousand Plateaus''. Trans. ]. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of '']''. 2 vols. |
* ---. 1980. ''A Thousand Plateaus''. Trans. ]. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of '']''. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of ''Mille Plateaux''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. {{ISBN|0-8264-7694-5}}. | ||
* Foucault, Michel. 1977. Preface. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, |
* Foucault, Michel. 1977. Preface. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xiii–xvi). | ||
* ]. 1992. ''Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm''. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of ''Chaosmose''. Paris: Éditions Galilée. ISBN |
* ]. 1992. ''Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm''. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of ''Chaosmose''. Paris: Éditions Galilée. {{ISBN|0-909952-25-6}}. | ||
* ---. 2004 ''The Anti-Oedipus Papers.'' Ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. Kélina Gotman. New York: Semiotext(e), 2006. ISBN |
* ---. 2004 ''The Anti-Oedipus Papers.'' Ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. Kélina Gotman. New York: Semiotext(e), 2006. {{ISBN|1-58435-031-8}}. | ||
* Holland, Eugene W. 1999. ''Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: Introduction to Schizoanalysis.'' London and New York: Routledge. ISBN |
* Holland, Eugene W. 1999. ''Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: Introduction to Schizoanalysis.'' London and New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-11319-9}}. | ||
* Seem, Mark. 1977. Introduction. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, |
* Seem, Mark. 1977. Introduction. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xvii–xxvi). | ||
{{Refend}} | |||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* Abou-Rihan, Fadi. 2008. "Deleuze and Guattari: A Psychoanalytic Itinerary." London/New York: Continuum. ISBN |
* Abou-Rihan, Fadi. 2008. "Deleuze and Guattari: A Psychoanalytic Itinerary." London/New York: Continuum. {{ISBN|1-84706-371-3}}. | ||
* Alliez, Éric. 2004. "Anti-Oedipus – Thirty Years On (Between Art and Politics)." Trans. ]. In ''Deleuze and the Social.'' Ed. Martin Fulgsang and Bent Meier Sorenson. Deleuze Connections ser. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2006. 151–68. ISBN |
* Alliez, Éric. 2004. "Anti-Oedipus – Thirty Years On (Between Art and Politics)." Trans. ]. In ''Deleuze and the Social.'' Ed. Martin Fulgsang and Bent Meier Sorenson. Deleuze Connections ser. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2006. 151–68. {{ISBN|0-7486-2093-1}}. | ||
* ]. 2004. "The Flux and the Party: In the Margins of Anti-Oedipus." Trans. Laura Balladur and Simon Krysl. ''Polygraph'' 15/16: 75–92. | * ]. 2004. "The Flux and the Party: In the Margins of Anti-Oedipus." Trans. Laura Balladur and Simon Krysl. ''Polygraph'' 15/16: 75–92. | ||
* Buchanan, Ian, ed. 1999. ''A Deleuzean Century?'' Durham, NC: Duke UP. ISBN |
* Buchanan, Ian, ed. 1999. ''A Deleuzean Century?'' Durham, NC: Duke UP. {{ISBN|0-8223-2392-3}}. | ||
* ---. 2008. ''Deleuze and Guattari's ''Anti-Oedipus'': A Reader's Guide.'' London and New York: Continuum. ISBN |
* ---. 2008. ''Deleuze and Guattari's ''Anti-Oedipus'': A Reader's Guide.'' London and New York: Continuum. {{ISBN|0-8264-9149-9}}. | ||
* ] and ] 1975. ''Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature''. Trans. Dana Polan. Theory and History of Literature 30. Minneapolis and London: U of Minnesota P, 1986. Trans. of ''Kafka: Pour une literature mineure''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN |
* ] and ] 1975. ''Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature''. Trans. Dana Polan. Theory and History of Literature 30. Minneapolis and London: U of Minnesota P, 1986. Trans. of ''Kafka: Pour une literature mineure''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. {{ISBN|0-8166-1515-2}}. | ||
* Flieger, Jerry Aline. 1999. "Overdetermined Oedipus: Mommy, Daddy and Me as Desiring-Machine." In Buchanan (1999, 219–240). | * Flieger, Jerry Aline. 1999. "Overdetermined Oedipus: Mommy, Daddy and Me as Desiring-Machine." In Buchanan (1999, 219–240). | ||
* ]. 1984. ''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics''. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN |
* ]. 1984. ''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics''. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. {{ISBN|0-14-055160-3}}. | ||
* ---. 1995. ''Chaosophy''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN |
* ---. 1995. ''Chaosophy''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). {{ISBN|1-57027-019-8}}. | ||
* ---. 1996. ''Soft Subversions''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN |
* ---. 1996. ''Soft Subversions''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). {{ISBN|1-57027-030-9}}. | ||
* ]. 1972. ''Homosexual Desire.'' Trans. Daniella Dangoor. 2nd ed. Series Q ser. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1993. ISBN |
* ]. 1972. ''Homosexual Desire.'' Trans. Daniella Dangoor. 2nd ed. Series Q ser. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1993. {{ISBN|0-8223-1384-7}}. | ||
* ]. 1999. "Marxism and Dualism in Deleuze." In Buchanan (1999, |
* ]. 1999. "Marxism and Dualism in Deleuze." In Buchanan (1999, 13–36). | ||
* Lambert, Gregg. 2006. ''Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari?'' London and New York: Continuum. | * Lambert, Gregg. 2006. ''Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari?'' London and New York: Continuum. | ||
* ]. 1992. ''A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari''. Swerve editions. Cambridge, |
* ]. 1992. ''A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari''. Swerve editions. Cambridge, United States and London: MIT. {{ISBN|0-262-63143-1}}. | ||
* Perez, Rolando. 1990. On An(archy) and Schizoanalysis. New York: Autonomedia. | |||
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Latest revision as of 19:19, 13 November 2024
1972 book by Deleuze and GuattariCover of the first edition | |
Authors | Gilles Deleuze Félix Guattari |
---|---|
Original title | Capitalisme et schizophrénie L'anti-Œdipe |
Translators | Robert Hurley Mark Seem Helen R. Lane |
Language | French |
Subject | Capitalism, schizoanalysis |
Publisher | Les Éditions de Minuit, Viking Penguin |
Publication date | 1972 |
Publication place | France |
Published in English | 1977 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
Pages | 494 (French edition) 400 (University of Minnesota Press edition) |
ISBN | 0-8166-1225-0 (University of Minnesota Press edition) |
Followed by | A Thousand Plateaus (1980) |
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (French: Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe) is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first volume of their collaborative work Capitalism and Schizophrenia, the second being A Thousand Plateaus (1980).
In the book, Deleuze and Guattari developed the concepts and theories in schizoanalysis, a loose critical practice initiated from the standpoint of schizophrenia and psychosis as well as from the social progress that capitalism has spurred. They refer to psychoanalysis, economics, the creative arts, literature, anthropology and history in engagement with these concepts. Contrary to contemporary French uses of the ideas of Sigmund Freud, they outlined a "materialist psychiatry" modeled on the unconscious regarded as an aggregate of productive processes of desire, incorporating their concept of desiring-production which interrelates desiring-machines and bodies without organs, and repurpose Karl Marx's historical materialism to detail their different organizations of social production, "recording surfaces", coding, territorialization and the act of "inscription". Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas of the will to power and eternal recurrence also have roles in how Deleuze and Guattari describe schizophrenia; the book extends from much of Deleuze's prior thinking in Difference and Repetition and The Logic of Sense that utilized Nietzsche's ideas to explore a radical conception of becoming.
Deleuze and Guattari also draw on and criticize the philosophies and theories of: Spinoza, Kant, Charles Fourier, Charles Sanders Peirce, Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Karl Jaspers, Lewis Mumford, Karl August Wittfogel, Wilhelm Reich, Georges Bataille, Louis Hjelmslev, Jacques Lacan, Gregory Bateson, Pierre Klossowski, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Monod, Louis Althusser, Victor Turner, Jean Oury, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon, R. D. Laing, David Cooper, and Pierre Clastres.
They additionally draw on authors and artists whose works demonstrate their concept of schizophrenia as "the universe of productive and reproductive desiring-machines", such as Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, Georg Büchner, Samuel Butler, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Marcel Proust, Arthur Rimbaud, Daniel Paul Schreber, Adolf Wölfli, Vaslav Nijinsky, Gérard de Nerval and J. M. W. Turner.
Thus, given the richness and diversity of the source material it draws upon and the grand task it sets out to accomplish, Anti-Oedipus can, as Michel Foucault suggests in the preface to the text, "best be read as an 'art,'" and it would be a "mistake to read as the new theoretical reference" in philosophy.
Anti-Oedipus became a sensation upon publication and was widely celebrated, creating shifts in contemporary philosophy. It is seen as a key text in the "micropolitics of desire", alongside Lyotard's Libidinal Economy. It has been credited with devastating Lacanianism due to its unorthodox criticism of the movement.
Summary
Schizoanalysis
Main article: SchizoanalysisDeleuze and Guattari's "schizoanalysis" is a social and political analysis that responds to what they see as the reactionary tendencies of psychoanalysis. It proposes a functional evaluation of the direct investments of desire—whether revolutionary or reactionary—in a field that is social, biological, historical, and geographical. Deleuze and Guattari develop four theses of schizoanalysis:
- Every unconscious libidinal investment is social and bears upon a socio-historical field.
- Unconscious libidinal investments of group or desire are distinct from preconscious investments of class or interest.
- Non-familial libidinal investments of the social field are primary in relation to familial investments.
- Social libidinal investments are distinguished according to two poles: a paranoiac, reactionary, fascisizing pole and a schizoid revolutionary pole.
In contrast to the psychoanalytic conception, schizoanalysis assumes that the libido does not need to be de-sexualised, sublimated, or to go by way of metamorphoses in order to invest economic or political factors. "The truth is," Deleuze and Guattari explain, "sexuality is everywhere: the way a bureaucrat fondles his records, a judge administers justice, a businessman causes money to circulate; the way the bourgeoisie fucks the proletariat; and so on. Flags, nations, armies, banks get a lot of people aroused." In the terms of classical Marxism, desire is part of the economic, infrastructural "base" of society, they argue, not an ideological, subjective "superstructure."
Unconscious libidinal investments of desire coexist without necessarily coinciding with preconscious investments made according to the needs or ideological interests of the subject (individual or collective) who desires.
A form of social production and reproduction, along with its economic and financial mechanisms, its political formations, and so on, can be desired as such, in whole or in part, independently of the interests of the desiring-subject. It was not by means of a metaphor, even a paternal metaphor, that Hitler was able to sexually arouse the fascists. It is not by means of a metaphor that a banking or stock-market transaction, a claim, a coupon, a credit, is able to arouse people who are not necessarily bankers. And what about the effects of money that grows, money that produces more money? There are socioeconomic "complexes" that are also veritable complexes of the unconscious, and that communicate a voluptuous wave from the top to the bottom of their hierarchy (the military–industrial complex). And ideology, Oedipus, and the phallus have nothing to do with this, because they depend on it rather than being its impetus.
Schizoanalysis seeks to show how "in the subject who desires, desire can be made to desire its own repression—whence the role of the death instinct in the circuit connecting desire to the social sphere." Desire produces "even the most repressive and the most deadly forms of social reproduction."
Desiring machines and social production
Main article: Desiring-productionThe traditional understanding of desire assumes an exclusive distinction between "production" and "acquisition." This line of thought—which has dominated Western philosophy throughout its history and stretches from Plato to Freud and Lacan—understands desire through the concept of acquisition, insofar as desire seeks to acquire something that it lacks. This dominant conception, Deleuze and Guattari argue, is a form of philosophical idealism. Alternative conceptions, which treat desire as a positive, productive force, have received far less attention; the ideas of the small number of philosophers who have developed them, however, are of crucial importance to Deleuze and Guattari's project: principally Nietzsche's will to power and Spinoza's conatus. Deleuze and Guattari argue that desire is a positive process of production that produces reality. On the basis of three "passive syntheses" (partly modelled on Kant's syntheses of apperception from his Critique of Pure Reason), desire engineers "partial objects, flows, and bodies" in the service of the autopoiesis of the unconscious. In this model, desire does not "lack" its object; instead, desire "is a machine, and the object of desire is another machine connected to it." On this basis, Deleuze and Guattari develop their notion of desiring-production. Since desire produces reality, social production, with its forces and relations, is "purely and simply desiring-production itself under determinate conditions."
Like their contemporary, R. D. Laing, and like Reich before them, Deleuze and Guattari make a connection between psychological repression and social oppression. By means of their concept of desiring-production, however, their manner of doing so is radically different. They describe a universe composed of desiring-machines, all of which are connected to one another: "There are no desiring-machines that exist outside the social machines that they form on a large scale; and no social machines without the desiring machines that inhabit them on a small scale." When they insist that a social field may be invested by desire directly, they oppose Freud's concept of sublimation, which posits an inherent dualism between desiring-machines and social production: "The truth is that sexuality is everywhere: the way a bureaucrat fondles his records, a judge administers justice, a businessman causes money to circulate; the way the bourgeoisie fucks the proletariat; and so on." This dualism, they argue, limited and trapped the revolutionary potential of the theories of Laing and Reich. Deleuze and Guattari develop a critique of Freud and Lacan's psychoanalysis, anti-psychiatry, and Freudo-Marxism (with its insistence on a necessary mediation between the two realms of desire and the social). Deleuze and Guattari's concept of sexuality is not limited to the interaction of male and female gender roles, but instead posits a multiplicity of flows that a "hundred thousand" desiring-machines create within their connected universe; Deleuze and Guattari contrast this "non-human, molecular sexuality" to "molar" binary sexuality: "making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand," they write, adding that "we always make love with worlds."
Reframing the Oedipal complex
The "anti-" part of their critique of the Freudian Oedipal complex begins with that original model's articulation of society based on the family triangle of father, mother and child. Criticizing psychoanalysis "familialism", they want to show that the oedipal model of the family is a kind of organization that must colonize its members, repress their desires, and give them complexes if it is to function as an organizing principle of society. Instead of conceiving the "family" as a sphere contained by a larger "social" sphere, and giving a logical preeminence to the family triangle, Deleuze and Guattari argue that the family should be opened onto the social, as in Bergson's conception of the Open, and that underneath the pseudo-opposition between family (composed of personal subjects) and social, lies the relationship between pre-individual desire and social production.
Furthermore, they argue that schizophrenia is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself and capitalism keeps enforcing neurosis as a way of maintaining normality. However, they oppose a non-clinical concept of "schizophrenia" as deterritorialization to the clinical end-result "schizophrenic" (i.e. they do not intend to romanticize "mental disorders"; instead, they show, like Foucault, that "psychiatric disorders" are always second to something else).
Body without organs
Main article: Body without organsDeleuze and Guattari develop their concept of the "body without organs" (often rendered as BwO) from Antonin Artaud's text "To Have Done With the Judgment of God". Since desire can take on as many forms as there are persons to implement it, it must seek new channels and different combinations to realize itself, forming a body without organs for every instance. Desire is not limited to the affections of a subject, nor the material state of the subject. Bodies without organs cannot be forced or willed into existence, however, and they are essentially the product of a zero-intensity condition that Deleuze and Guattari link to catatonic schizophrenia that also becomes "the model of death".
Criticism of psychoanalysts
Deleuze and Guattari address the case of Gérard Mendel, Bela Grunberger and Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, who were prominent members of the most respected psychoanalytic association (the International Psychoanalytical Association). They argue that this case demonstrates that psychoanalysis enthusiastically embraces a police state:
As to those who refuse to be oedipalized in one form or another, at one end or the other in the treatment, the psychoanalyst is there to call the asylum or the police for help. The police on our side!—never did psychoanalysis better display its taste for supporting the movement of social repression, and for participating in it with enthusiasm. notice of the dominant tone in the most respected associations: consider Dr. Mendel and the Drs Stéphane, the state of fury that is theirs, and their literally police-like appeal at the thought that someone might try to escape the Oedipal dragnet. Oedipus is one of those things that becomes all the more dangerous the less people believe in it; then the cops are there to replace the high priests.
Bela Grunberger and Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel were two psychoanalysts from the Paris section of the International Psychoanalytical Association. In November 1968 they disguised themselves under the pseudonym André Stéphane and published L'univers Contestationnaire, in which they argued that the left-wing rioters of May 68 were totalitarian stalinists, and proceeded to psychoanalyze them as having a sordid infantilism caught up in an Oedipal revolt against the Father. Jacques Lacan regarded Grunberger and Chasseguet-Smirgel's book with great disdain; while they were still disguised under the pseudonym, Lacan remarked that he was certain that neither author belonged to his school, as none would abase themselves to such low drivel. The IPa analysts responded with an accusation against the Lacan school of "intellectual terrorism." Gérard Mendel published La révolte contre le père (1968) and Pour décoloniser l'enfant (1971).
Fascism, the family, and the desire for oppression
Desiring self-repression
Deleuze and Guattari address a fundamental problem of political philosophy: the contradictory phenomenon whereby an individual or a group comes to desire their own oppression. This contradiction had been mentioned briefly by the 17th-century philosopher Spinoza: "Why do men fight for their servitude as stubbornly as though it were their salvation?" That is, how is it possible that people cry for "More taxes! Less bread!"? Wilhelm Reich discussed the phenomenon in his 1933 book The Mass Psychology of Fascism:
The astonishing thing is not that some people steal or that others occasionally go out on strike, but rather that all those who are starving do not steal as a regular practice, and all those who are exploited are not continually out on strike: after centuries of exploitation, why do people still tolerate being humiliated and enslaved, to such a point, indeed, that they actually want humiliation and slavery not only for others but for themselves?"
To address this question, Deleuze and Guattari examine the relationships between social organisation, power, and desire, particularly in relation to the Freudian "Oedipus complex" and its familial mechanisms of subjectivation ("daddy-mommy-me"). They argue that the nuclear family is the most powerful agent of psychological repression, under which the desires of the child and the adolescent are repressed and perverted. Such psychological repression forms docile individuals that are easy targets for social repression. By using this powerful mechanism, the dominant class, "making cuts (coupures) and segregations pass over into a social field", can ultimately control individuals or groups, ensuring general submission. This explains the contradictory phenomenon in which people "act manifestly counter to their class interests—when they rally to the interests and ideals of a class that their own objective situation should lead them to combat". Deleuze and Guattari's critique of these mechanisms seeks to promote a revolutionary liberation of desire:
If desire is repressed, it is because every position of desire, no matter how small, is capable of calling into question the established order of a society: not that desire is asocial, on the contrary. But it is explosive; there is no desiring-machine capable of being assembled without demolishing entire social sectors. Despite what some revolutionaries think about this, desire is revolutionary in its essence—desire, not left-wing holidays!—and no society can tolerate a position of real desire without its structures of exploitation, servitude, and hierarchy being compromised.
The family under capitalism as an agent of repression
The family is the agent to which capitalist production delegates the psychological repression of the desires of the child. Psychological repression is distinguished from social oppression insofar as it works unconsciously. Through it, Deleuze and Guattari argue, parents transmit their angst and irrational fears to their child and bind the child's sexual desires to feelings of shame and guilt. Psychological repression is strongly linked with social oppression, which levers on it. It is thanks to psychological repression that individuals are transformed into docile servants of social repression who come to desire self-repression and who accept a miserable life as employees for capitalism. A capitalist society needs a powerful tool to counteract the explosive force of desire, which has the potential to threaten its structures of exploitation, servitude, and hierarchy; the nuclear family is precisely the powerful tool able to counteract those forces.
The action of the family not only performs a psychological repression of desire, but it disfigures it, giving rise to a consequent neurotic desire, the perversion of incestuous drives and desiring self-repression. The Oedipus complex arises from this double operation: "It is in one and the same movement that the repressive social production is replaced by the repressing family, and that the latter offers a displaced image of desiring-production that represents the repressed as incestuous familial drives."
Capitalism and the political economy of desire
Territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization
Although (like most Deleuzo-Guattarian terms) deterritorialization has a purposeful variance in meaning throughout their oeuvre, it can be roughly described as a move away from a rigidly imposed hierarchical, arborescent context, which seeks to package things (concepts, objects, etc.) into discrete categorised units with singular coded meanings or identities, towards a rhizomatic zone of multiplicity and fluctuant identity, where meanings and operations flow freely between said things, resulting in a dynamic, constantly changing set of interconnected entities with fuzzy individual boundaries. Importantly, the concept implies a continuum, not a simple binary – every actual assemblage (a flexible term alluding to the heterogeneous composition of any complex system, individual, social, geological) is marked by simultaneous movements of territorialization (maintenance) and of deterritorialization (dissipation). Various means of deterritorializing are alluded to by the authors in their chapter "How to Make Yourself A Body Without Organs" in A Thousand Plateaus, including psychoactives such as peyote. Experientially, the effects of such substances can include a loosening (relative deterritorialization) of the worldview of the user (i.e. his/her beliefs, models, etc.), subsequently leading to an antiredeterritorialization (remapping of beliefs, models, etc.) that is not necessarily identical to the prior territory.
Deterritorialization is closely related to Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts such as line of flight, destratification and the body without organs/BwO (a term borrowed from Artaud), and is sometimes defined in such a way as to be partly interchangeable with these terms (most specifically in the second part of Capitalism and Schizophrenia, A Thousand Plateaus). Deleuze and Guattari posit that dramatic reterritorialization often follows relative deterritorialization, while absolute deterritorialization is just that... absolute deterritorialization without any reterritorialization.
Terminology borrowed from science
During the course of their argument, Deleuze and Guattari borrow a number of concepts from different scientific fields. To describe the process of desire, they draw on fluid dynamics, the branch of physics that studies how a fluid flows through space. They describe society in terms of forces acting in a vector field. They also relate processes of their "body without organs" to the embryology of an egg, from which they borrow the concept of an inductor.
Reception and influence
The philosopher Michel Foucault wrote that Anti-Oedipus can best be read as an "art", in the sense that is conveyed by the term "erotic art." Foucault considered the book's three "adversaries" as the "bureaucrats of the revolution", the "poor technicians of desire" (psychoanalysts and semiologists), and "the major enemy", fascism. Foucault used the term "fascism" to refer "not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini...but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us." Foucault added that Anti-Oedipus is "a book of ethics, the first book of ethics to be written in France in quite a long time", and suggested that this explains its popular success. Foucault proposed that the book could be called Introduction to the Non-Fascist Life. Foucault argued that putting the principles espoused in Anti-Oedipus into practice involves freeing political action from "unitary and totalizing paranoia" and withdrawing allegiance "from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an access to reality."
The psychiatrist David Cooper described Anti-Oedipus as "a magnificent vision of madness as a revolutionary force", crediting its authors with using "the psychoanalytic language and the discourse of Saussure (and his successors)" to pit "linguistics against itself in what is already proving to be an historic act of depassment." The critic Frederick Crews wrote that when Deleuze and Guattari "indicted Lacanian psychoanalysis as a capitalist disorder" and "pilloried analysts as the most sinister priest-manipulators of a psychotic society", their "demonstration was widely regarded as unanswerable" and "devastated the already shrinking Lacanian camp in Paris." The philosopher Douglas Kellner described Anti-Oedipus as its era's publishing sensation, and, along with Jean-François Lyotard's Libidinal Economy (1974), a key text in "the micropolitics of desire." The psychoanalyst Joel Kovel wrote that Deleuze and Guattari provided a definitive challenge to the mystique of the family, but that they did so in the spirit of nihilism, commenting, "Immersion in their world of 'schizoculture' and desiring machines is enough to make a person yearn for the secure madness of the nuclear family."
Anthony Elliott described Anti-Oedipus as a "celebrated" work that "scandalized French psychoanalysis and generated heated dispute among intellectuals" and "offered a timely critique of psychoanalysis and Lacanianism at the time of its publication in France". However, he added that most commentators would now agree that "schizoanalysis" is fatally flawed, and that there are several major objections that can be made against Anti-Oedipus. In his view, even if "subjectivity may be usefully decentred and deconstructed", it is wrong to assume that "desire is naturally rebellious and subversive." He believed that Deleuze and Guattari see the individual as "no more than various organs, intensities and flows, rather than a complex, contradictory identity" and make false emancipatory claims for schizophrenia. He also argued that Deleuze and Guattari's work produces difficulties for the interpretation of contemporary culture, because of their "rejection of institutionality as such", which obscures the difference between liberal democracy and fascism and leaves Deleuze and Guattari with "little more than a romantic, idealized fantasy of the 'schizoid hero'". He wrote that Anti-Oedipus follows a similar theoretical direction to Lyotard's Libidinal Economy, though he sees several significant differences between Deleuze and Guattari on the one hand and Lyotard on the other.
Some of Guattari's diary entries, correspondence with Deleuze, and notes on the development of the book were published posthumously as The Anti-Oedipus Papers (2004). The philosopher Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and the psychologist Sonu Shamdasani wrote that rather than having their confidence shaken by the "provocations and magnificent rhetorical violence" of Anti-Oedipus, the psychoanalytic profession felt that the debates raised by the book legitimated their discipline. Joshua Ramey wrote that while the passage into Deleuze and Guattari's "body without organs" is "fraught with danger and even pain ... the point of Anti-Oedipus is not to make glamorous that violence or that suffering. Rather, the point is to show that there is a viable level of Dinoysian experience." The philosopher Alan D. Schrift wrote in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (2015) that Anti-Oedipus was "read as a major articulation of the philosophy of desire and a profound critique of psychoanalysis."
See also
- Accelerationism
- Antipsychiatry
- Feminism and the Oedipus complex
- Id, ego, and super-ego
- La Borde clinic
- Plane of immanence
- Psychoanalytic conceptions of language
- Psychological repression
- Schizoanalysis
Notes
- Foucault (1977, 14).
- ^ Deleuze and Guattari (1980, 423–427).
- Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus, p.4
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xli).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 8, 51, 392). The painting forms the frontispiece of Anti-Oedipus.
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 54, 108, 127–128, 325-xx). Deleuze and Guattari argue that there was no specific "turning point" in the theoretical development of Freudianism at which it became reactionary; instead, it contained "revolutionary, reformist, and reactionary elements" from the start. "We refuse to play 'take it or leave it'," they write. This politically ambiguous mixture of tendencies in psychoanalysis arises, they argue, from its ambiguous relationship with its discoveries: "As if every great doctrine were not a combined formation, constructed from bits and pieces, various intermingled codes and flux, partial elements and derivatives, that constitute its very life or becoming. As if we could reproach someone for having an ambiguous relationship with psychoanalysis, without first mentioning that psychoanalysis owes its existence to a relationship, theoretically and practically ambiguous, with what it discovers and the forces that it wields" (1972, 128). Despite the militancy of the analyses proposed within Deleuze and Guattari's project, they insist that "no political program will be elaborated within the framework of schizoanalysis" (1972, 415). Guattari developed the implications of their theory for a concrete political project in his book with the Italian autonomist marxist philosopher Antonio Negri, Communists Like Us (1985). For the variable relations between the socius of capital and revolutionary autonomous territorialities, see Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 410).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 93, 115, 322–333, 354, 400).
- First thesis (1972, 375); second thesis (1972, 377); third thesis (1972, 390); fourth thesis (1972, 401).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 322–333).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114, 378). In failing to recognise this, Deleuze and Guattari argue, Wilhelm Reich fell short of the materialist psychiatry towards which he aimed and was unable to provide an adequate answer to his question "Why did the masses desire fascism?"
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114, 322). Deleuze and Guattari qualify this distinction between unconscious desire and preconscious need or interest when they write: "It is doubtless true that interests predispose us to a given libidinal investment"; however, they go on to insist once again that the interests "are not identical with this investment" (1972, 379).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 114–115).
- Section 2.5 The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation, pp. 98, 105
- ^ Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31).
- ^ Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 26).
- Kant's analysis of superstitious beliefs, hallucinations, and fantasies in his Critique of Judgment treats desire as a creative, productive force, Deleuze and Guattari explain, although his analysis limits its effects to the production of a psychic reality and thereby retains the validity of desire-as-lack; (1972, 26–27).
- ^ Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 28), Guattari (1992, 15), and Holland (1999, 25).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 1–9).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 373).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972). Anti-Oedipus. University of Minnesota Press. p. 293.
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 323, 325).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 34–35)
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 21).
- section 2.4 The disjunctive synthesis of recording p. 89
- ^ Jean-Michel Rabaté (2009) 68 + 1: Lacan's année érotique published in Parrhesia, Number 6 • 2009 pp. 28–45
- André Stéphane , L'Univers Contestationnaire (Paris: Payot, 1969).
- Jacques Lacan, The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, Seminar XVI D'un Autre à l'autre, 1968–9, p. 266
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 31); see also Deleuze and Foucault (1972, 212).
- In Theologico-Political Treatise, Preface. The original Latin text reads: "ut pro servido, tanquam pro salute pugnent".
- Anti-Oedipus, section I.4 A Materialist Psychiatry
- Wilhelm Reich (1946) The Mass Psychology of Fascism, section I.3 The Problem of Mass Psychology, originally published in 1933
- Section II.7 Social Repression and Psychic repression, pp. 123–32
- Holland (1999) p. 57
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).
- Anti-Oedipus, section 2.5 The Conjunctive Synthesis of Consumption-Consummation, Desire and the infrastructure, p.104
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 126–127).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 130–131).
- ^ Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 130).
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 396).
- ^ pp.115, 119–20
- Deleuze and Guattari (1972, 92–93, 100–101). Deleuze and Guattari develop this relation further in the chapter "November 28, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?" in their sequel to Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus (1980, 165–184).
- Foucault, Michel; Deleuze, Gilles; Guattari, Félix (1992). Anti-Oedipus. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. xii–xiii. ISBN 0-8166-1225-0.
- Cooper, David (1978). The Language of Madness. London: Allen Lane. p. 138. ISBN 0-7139-1118-2.
- Crews, Frederick (1986). Skeptical Engagements. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 176. ISBN 0-19-503950-5.
- Kellner, Douglas (1989). Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond. Cambridge: Polity Press. pp. 127, 223. ISBN 0-7456-0562-1.
- Kovel, Joel (1991). History and Spirit: An Inquiry into the Philosophy of Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 82, 255. ISBN 0-8070-2916-5.
- Elliott, Anthony (2002). Psychoanalytic Theory: An Introduction. New York: Palgrave. pp. 157, 161–163. ISBN 0-333-91912-2.
- Guattari (2004).
- Borch-Jacobsen, Mikkel; Shamdasani, Sonu (2012). The Freud Files: An Inquiry into the History of Psychoanalysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–1. ISBN 978-0-521-72978-9.
- Ramey, Joshua (2012). The Hermetic Deleuze: Philosophy and Spiritual Ordeal. Durham: Duke University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-8223-5229-7.
- Schrift, Alan D. (2017). Audi, Robert (ed.). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 251. ISBN 978-1-107-64379-6.
Sources
- Deleuze, Gilles. 2004. Desert Islands and Other Texts, 1953–1974. Trans. Michael Taormina. Ed. David Lapoujade. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents ser. Los Angeles and New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1-58435-018-0.
- Deleuze, Gilles and Michel Foucault. 1972. "Intellectuals and Power." In Deleuze (2004, 206–213).
- Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. Anti-Oedipus. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of L'Anti-Oedipe. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0-8264-7695-3. Preview available on Google Books
- ---. 1980. A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of Mille Plateaux. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0-8264-7694-5.
- Foucault, Michel. 1977. Preface. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xiii–xvi).
- Guattari, Félix. 1992. Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of Chaosmose. Paris: Éditions Galilée. ISBN 0-909952-25-6.
- ---. 2004 The Anti-Oedipus Papers. Ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. Kélina Gotman. New York: Semiotext(e), 2006. ISBN 1-58435-031-8.
- Holland, Eugene W. 1999. Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: Introduction to Schizoanalysis. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11319-9.
- Seem, Mark. 1977. Introduction. In Deleuze and Guattari (1972, xvii–xxvi).
Further reading
- Abou-Rihan, Fadi. 2008. "Deleuze and Guattari: A Psychoanalytic Itinerary." London/New York: Continuum. ISBN 1-84706-371-3.
- Alliez, Éric. 2004. "Anti-Oedipus – Thirty Years On (Between Art and Politics)." Trans. Alberto Toscano. In Deleuze and the Social. Ed. Martin Fulgsang and Bent Meier Sorenson. Deleuze Connections ser. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2006. 151–68. ISBN 0-7486-2093-1.
- Badiou, Alain. 2004. "The Flux and the Party: In the Margins of Anti-Oedipus." Trans. Laura Balladur and Simon Krysl. Polygraph 15/16: 75–92.
- Buchanan, Ian, ed. 1999. A Deleuzean Century? Durham, NC: Duke UP. ISBN 0-8223-2392-3.
- ---. 2008. Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: A Reader's Guide. London and New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-9149-9.
- Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari 1975. Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature. Trans. Dana Polan. Theory and History of Literature 30. Minneapolis and London: U of Minnesota P, 1986. Trans. of Kafka: Pour une literature mineure. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0-8166-1515-2.
- Flieger, Jerry Aline. 1999. "Overdetermined Oedipus: Mommy, Daddy and Me as Desiring-Machine." In Buchanan (1999, 219–240).
- Guattari, Félix. 1984. Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-055160-3.
- ---. 1995. Chaosophy. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1-57027-019-8.
- ---. 1996. Soft Subversions. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1-57027-030-9.
- Hocquenghem, Guy. 1972. Homosexual Desire. Trans. Daniella Dangoor. 2nd ed. Series Q ser. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1993. ISBN 0-8223-1384-7.
- Jameson, Fredric. 1999. "Marxism and Dualism in Deleuze." In Buchanan (1999, 13–36).
- Lambert, Gregg. 2006. Who's Afraid of Deleuze and Guattari? London and New York: Continuum.
- Massumi, Brian. 1992. A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari. Swerve editions. Cambridge, United States and London: MIT. ISBN 0-262-63143-1.
- Perez, Rolando. 1990. On An(archy) and Schizoanalysis. New York: Autonomedia.
External links
- Preview of Anti-Oedipus available on Google Books
- "Reading Notes on Deleuze and Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia" by Michael Hardt
- "Drive and Desire: Zizek and Anti-Oedipus"
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- 1972 non-fiction books
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- Works by Félix Guattari
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