You’ve probably found your way here because you’re interested in reading Anti-Oedipus, the first book in the Capitalism and Schizophrenia series. Or perhaps, you’ve stumbled upon this by chance. Either way, welcome!
Anti-Oedipus is a landmark book written by French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in 1972. As the title suggests, Deleuze and Guattari seek to dismantle Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus complex. However, in their exploration, they illustrate how they are not solely critiquing Freud, but eviscerating the entire apparatus by which psychoanalysis becomes a disciplinary mechanism complicit with the functioning of capitalism. Rather than understanding desire as lack (as in traditional psychoanalysis), Deleuze and Guattari conceptualize desire as productive.
In this blog post, I will outline a reading approach that explores the book’s central argument. My aim is to offer a breakdown of each section.
Chapter One
Chapter 1.1: In the first section, Deleuze and Guattari introduce the first synthesis of the unconscious, referred to as the connective synthesis or the production of production. They characterize the energy within this synthesis as “libido.” The first synthesis is guided by “and … and then.”
Chapter 1.2: In the second section, Deleuze and Guattari introduce the second synthesis of the unconscious, referred to as the disjunctive synthesis or production of recording. They characterize the energy within this synthesis as “Numen.” The second synthesis is guided by “either … or … or”
Chapter 1.3: In the third section, Deleuze and Guattari introduce the third synthesis of the unconscious, referred to as the conjunctive synthesis or production of consumption. They characterize the energy within this synthesis as “voluptuous.” The third synthesis is guided by “so it’s… ”
(The three syntheses of the unconscious describe nature as a “process of production” and explain how subjectivity comes to be. Deleuze and Guattari do not assume personalized subjectivity as an a priori.)
Chapter 1.4: In the fourth section, Deleuze and Guattari examine the history of schizophrenia. They also discuss deterritorialization and reterritorialization in the context of capitalism. By analyzing capitalism, they show that capitalism produces the schizophrenic as a result of decoded flows.
Chapter 1.5: In the fifth section, Deleuze and Guattari detail a summary of the three syntheses of the unconscious.
Chapter 1.6: In the sixth section, Deleuze and Guattari explain their metaphysics. They examine the concept of the One and the many and reframe it in terms of the whole and its parts, showing how the body without organs falls back on the production process, causing the process to start up again.
Chapter Two
Chapter 2.1:In the first section, Deleuze and Guattari discuss how structural psychoanalytic interpretations rely on the classical Freudian framework. Through an examination of Freud’s case studies, they praise early psychoanalysis while tracing how it began to go astray.
Work In Progress
Chapter 2.2: In the second section, Deleuze and Guattari analyze three of Freud’s foundational texts.
(Having laid the essential groundwork for their critique of psychoanalysis, they proceed to discuss the paralogisms.)
Chapter 2.3: In the third section, Deleuze and Guattari present the first paralogism of the unconscious which isolates misuse of the first synthesis.
Chapter 2.4: In the fourth section, Deleuze and Guattari present the second paralogism of the unconscious which isolates misuse of the second synthesis.
Chapter 2.5: In the fifth section, Dleuze and Guattari present the third paralogism of the unconscious which isolates misuse of the third synthesis.
Chapter 2.6: In the sixth section, Deleuze and Guattari detail a summary of the first three paralogisms of the unconscious.
Chapter 2.7: In the seventh section, Deleuze and Guattari present the fourth paralogism of the unconscious which is concerned with social and psychic repression.
Chapter 2.8: In the eight section, Deleuze and Guattari present the fifth paralogism of the unconscious dealing with neurosis and psychosis. (This is essentially Michel Foucault’s argument in his book Discipline and Punish. Deleuze and Guattari’s first four paralogisms describe the conditions that precede one’s policing of others and themselves.)
Chapter 2.9: In the ninth section, Deleuze and Guattari discuss neurosis, psychosis, and schizophrenia in the context of literature and art.
Chapter Three
Chapter 3.1
Chapter 3.2
Chapter 3.3
Chapter 3.4
Chapter 3.5
Chapter 3.6
Chapter 3.7
Chapter 3.8
Chapter 3.9
Chapter 3.10
Chapter 3.11
Chapter Four
Chapter 4.1
Chapter 4.2
Chapter 4.3
Chapter 4.4
Chapter 4.5