"The unconscious is not a theatre, but a factory,"
wrote Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in Anti-Oedipus
(1972), instigating one of the most daring intellectual
adventures of the last half-century. Together, the
well-known philosopher and the activist-psychiatrist
were updating both psychoanalysis and Marxism in light
of a more radical and "constructivist" vision of
capitalism: "Capitalism is the exterior limit of all
societies because it has no exterior limit itself. It
works well as long as it keeps breaking down."Few people
at the time believed, as they wrote in the often-quoted
opening sentence of Rhizome, that "the two of us wrote
Anti-Oedipus together." They added, "Since each of us
was several, that became quite a crowd." These notes,
addressed to Deleuze by Guattari in preparation for
Anti-Oedipus, and annotated by Deleuze, substantiate
their claim, finally bringing out the factory behind the
theatre. They reveal Guattari as an inventive, highly
analytical, mathematically-minded "conceptor," arguably
one of the most prolific and enigmatic figures in
philosophy and sociopolitical theory today. The
Anti-Oedipus Papers (1[zasłonięte]969-19) are supplemented by
substantial journal entries in which Guattari describes
his turbulent relationship with his analyst and teacher
Jacques Lacan, his apprehensions about the publication
of Anti-Oedipus and accounts of his personal and
professional life as a private analyst and codirector
with Jean Oury of the experimental clinic Laborde
(created in the 1950s).
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