INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD

Ideology and Literature Book Review and Summary of Deleuze and Guattaris Anti-Oedipus (Post-modern critics)

Submitted to Dr! "unazza #a$oob

Submitted by %iman %slam &'attak "S (iterature Semester )nd

Summary: Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

By Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
Anti-oedipus; Capitalism and Schizophrenia is written by the postmodern critics named Deleuze and Guattari. The book has a preface written by Michael Foucault and an introduction by Mark Seem. Furthermore, the book is divided into four ma or parts !namely, The Desirin" Machines, #sychoanalysis and Familialism$ The %oly Family, Sava"es, &arbarians and 'ivilized Men, and (ntroduction to Schizoanalysis), each part further comprisin" of certain sections, each section dealin" with a separate !but linked to the previous) issue. The first part of the book is an account of Deleuze and Guattari*s materialist psychiatry, the second is a criti+ue of Freud*s ,edipus comple-, the third is a rewritin" of Mar-*s philosophy of history usin" the new lan"ua"e of materialist psychiatry and the fourth section is about Deleuze and Guattari*s new analytic endeavor, Schizoanalysis. Michael Foucault, ri"ht in the preface to the book, pinpoints certain important features that are discussed by the writers throu"hout the book. .ccordin" to him, the time period of /012 to /032 witnessed "reat reliance of the people on Mar-ism, Freudianism, and then Fascism. %owever, the later a"es saw resistance a"ainst the narrow doctrines presented by these theories and their propounders. Deleuze and Guattari are amon" those who resisted. Their thou"ht is hostile a"ainst totalizin" theories that bind desire to fi-ed alibis, and also to the poor technicians of this desire4psychoanalysts and semiolo"ists. Fascism !in all spheres of life) is considered to be an e-ploitation of peoples* desire and ust another way of repressin" them. So the book, accordin" to Foucault, could be renamed as An Introduction to the Nonfascist way of Life.

The preface is followed by (ntroduction written by Mark Seem. %e starts off with the way a psychiatrist will check one up as one "oes to him5her. (t*s ust another way of economic as well as psycholo"ical e-ploitation. 6hat Deleuze and Guattari have actually protested a"ainst is the wron" desire in"rained amon" common people by those in power4the desire to be led by others. (n sharp contrast to psychoanalysis, they present schizoanalysis to the people. The approach is dia"nostic which will "radually lead to healin" as it cures people from the cure itself. They have tried to probe into and deconstruct the seemin"ly natural attachment of the economy of our libido !flows of desire) to the political economy !flows of interest and capital). To be anti7 oedipal is to be anti7e"o as well as anti7homo, willfully attackin" all reductive psychoanalytic and political analyses that remain cau"ht within the sphere of totality and unity, in order to free the multiplicity of desire from the deadly neurotic and ,edipal yoke. #eople are sick, sick of their own selves from which now healin" is re+uired. &ut Guattari and Deleuze*s .nti7oedipus is not the superman of 8ietzsche rather it calls for actions and passions of a collective nature. Desire, accordin" to them, becomes destructive only because it is always in a state of repression. (n the book, the writers draw the analo"y between human life and machines. %uman or"ans are ust like machines which constantly "ive output in return for some input. Similarly, everythin" around us and inside us is machines alto"ether. (n this conte-t, every process around us is e+uivalent to production in one way or the other. For instance, man and nature are not separate parts of a process rather they are one and essential identity. Desirin" machines are ruled by binary set of laws4one machine coupled with another for complete functionin", fuelled by desire and always in a state of free flu- or flow. Deleuze and Guattari have developed their notion of 9Schizoanalysis* in this book. This approach articulated a new mode of postmodern self or"anized

around concepts of plural and multiple identities and decentred or displaced consciousness. They start from the basis that desire is itself revolutionary and radically subversive. %ence, society has needed to repress and control desire, to 9territorialize* it within demarcated areas and delimited structures: 9To code desire is the usiness of the socius * !Anti-!edipus" p. /;0). (n this view, the socius or the communal structure within which we live is a repressive system or re"ime: it or"anizes social harmony not throu"h ena lin# collective action to result from rational debate, but by preventin# individual and collective desires from bein" allowed their full potential. The book "ives a historical analysis of the ways in which desire is channeled and controlled by different social re"imes. Deleuze and Guattari theorize desire as a dynamic machine which constantly produces new connections and productions. #erceivin" the libido as a still fluid and as a flow prior to representation and production, 9schizoanalysis* opposes all those discourses and mechanisms which block the flow of the unconscious. For e-ample, the family structure is one place where individual desires are controlled or 9dammed up$, as certain social structures are produced and reproduced throu"h parental roles, siblin" rivalries and the imposition of "endered identities. 'ontrary to conventional psychoanalysis, Deleuze and Guattari understand desire to be essential, and ar"ue that it does not si"nify a lack, a sub ect in search of a lost ob ect. &odies are constructed as 9desirin" machines* because machines arran"e and connect flows. This 9deterritorialized* body is called 9the7body7without7or"ans*4a body without or"anization, a body that casts off its socially articulated, re"ularized and sub ectified circumstances. (n this respect, schizoanalysis has various tasks that can be considered postmodern: /. (t attempts a decentered and fra"mented analysis of the unconscious, aimin" to recapture pre7lin"uistic e-periences, unconscious investments of sounds and si"hts which liberate desire.

<. (t seeks to release the libidinal flow and to create 9new* desirin" sub ects. ;. 'ontrary to the processes of psychoanalysis, which neuroticises the sub ect, it9re7eroticizes* the body by freein" it for libidinal pursuits. 8ow if the book is looked at with reference to its separate parts, it could be e-plained this way. The western tradition of philosophy conceives of desire as somethin" that has a ne"ative aspect. From #lato to Freud, and most recently =acan, desire is thou"ht to be somethin" that is reachin" toward the ac+uisition of somethin". .t the discussion of desire and lack, Deleuze and Guattari import some of 8ietzsche*s philosophy. For Deleuze and Guattari, desire does not lack anythin"$ rather desire is a machine and the ob ect of desire !what =acan would call ! %et a) is yet another machine. The circuits these desirin" machines create are what Deleuze and Guattari call Desirin"7#roduction. Desirin"7#roduction takes the place of Freud*s unconscious. Desirin"7production is responsible for the production of reality and in turn social forces and relations: >?the truth of the matter is that social production is purely and simply desirin#production itself under determinate conditions. 6e maintain that the social field is immediately invested by desire, that it is the historically determined product of desire, and that libido has no need of any mediation or sublimation, any psychic operation, any transformation, in order to invade and invest the productive forces and the relations of production. There is only desire and the social" and nothin# else.@ !;A) The second part of Anti-!edipus is a criti+ue of Freud*s ,edipus comple-. This portion of Anti-!edipus makes the case that the ,edipal comple- is a colonizin" force. The ,edipal framework colonizes and represses the desires of the members of society. Bven more, 'apitalism has an inte"ral role in Deleuze and Guattari*s theory. Schizophrenia e-ists alon"side

capitalism and resists the neuroses that capitalism uses to maintain a repressive society. The third piece of .nti7,edipus is the reframin" of Mar-*s historical materialism in the lan"ua"e of materialist psychiatry. deterritorialization. Deleuze and Guattari trace history usin" throu"h the discussion of territorialization and Since the production of reality and society takes place throu"h desirin"7production, history cannot be understood as a dialectics of class stru""le, but rather throu"h the flows and blocka"es of desire. Deleuze and Guattari trace these flows from the be"innin" of the socius, which is also the be"innin" of desirin"7production, to the barbarian machines, the despotic machine, the urstaat, and the civilized capitalist machine. The concludin" piece of Anti-!edipus is an introduction to Schizoanalysis. Schizoanalysis is uncoverin" the ways >the su %ect who desires can e made to desire its own repression @ !/C2). The schizoanalytic process is discoverin" the sub ect in nature, rather than a psychiatrist*s office, discoverin" the formation and functions of the sub ects as desirin" machines. >The Schizoanalyst is a mechanic" and schizoanalysis is solely functional@ !;<<). Schizoanalysis deals with libidinal ener"ies in a way that is outside of the ,edipal matri-. >The truth is that se&uality is everywhere' the way a ureaucrat fondles his records" a %ud#e administers %ustice" a usinessman causes money to circulate; the way the our#eoisie fuc(s the proletariat; and so on. And there is no need to resort to metaphors" any more than for the li ido to #o y way of metamorphoses. )itler #ot the fascists se&ually aroused. *la#s" nations" armies" an(s #et a lot of people aroused@. !<0;) More concretely, the schizoanalytic practice is >?!/) undoin# all the reterritorializations that transform madness into mental illness $ !<)

li eratin# the schizoid movement of deterritorialization in all the flows" in such a way that this characteristic can no lon#er +ualify as a particular residue as a flow of madness" ut affects %ust as well the flows of la or and desire" of production" and (nowled#e" and creation in their most profound tendency@ !;</). Deterritorialization is a process with no end, schizoanalysis is deterritorialization toward >An active point of escape where the revolutionary machine" the artistic machine" and the scientific machine" and the ,schizo- analytic machine one another@ !;<<). (n a nutshell, one can view Deleuze and Guattari en"a"ed with do"mas that make their approach postmodern in the first place. These do"mas or beliefs could be framed under the followin" statements. First for all, we can infer an institutional appropriation, tamin" and neutralizin" of desire. Secondly, there is a defense or support for the liberation of the body and desire. Thirdly, there is also a pursuit of a 9schizoanalytic* destruction of the e"o and the supere"o in the favor of a dynamic unconscious. =astly, there is a re ection of the modernist notion of the unified, rational and e-pressive sub ect and the substitution of a postmodern sub ect which is decentred, liberated from fi-ed identities, and free to become dispersed and multiple. DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ecome parts and pieces of