Line of flight
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| - | '''Anti-Œdipus''' ([[1972]]) is a book by the French philosopher [[Gilles Deleuze]] and psychoanalyst [[Félix Guattari]]. It is the first volume of ''[[Capitalism and Schizophrenia]]'', the second volume being ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1980). It presents an eclectic account of human psychology, economics, society, and history, showing how "[[primitive]]", "[[despotic]]", and "[[capitalism | capitalist]] regimes" differ in their organization of ''production'', ''inscription'', and ''consumption''. It claims to describe how capitalism ultimately channels all [[desire]]s through an [[axiomatic]] money-based economy, a single-minded form of organization that is [[abstraction | abstract]], rather than local or material. | + | A '''line of flight''' or line of escape is a concept developed by [[Gilles Deleuze]] and used extensively in his work with [[Félix Guattari]]. In the first chapter of the second volume of their ''[[Capitalism and Schizophrenia]]'' project, ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1980), the concept is used to define a "[[Rhizome (philosophy)|rhizome]]": |
| - | == Key Concepts == | + | <blockquote>[[Multiplicity (philosophy)|Multiplicities]] are defined by the outside: by the abstract line, the line of flight or [[deterritorialization]] according to which they change in nature and connect with other multiplicities. The plane of consistency (grid) is the outside of all multiplicities. The line of flight marks: the reality of a finite number of dimensions that the multiplicity effectively fills; the impossibility of a supplementary dimension, unless the multiplicity is transformed by the line of flight; the possibility and necessity of flattening all of the multiplicities on a single plane of consistency or exteriority, regardless of their number of dimensions.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1980, 9-10).</ref></blockquote> |
| - | === Desiring Machines & Social Production === | + | |
| - | :[[Desiring-production]] | + | |
| - | [[Michel Foucault]] writes in the introduction, "...''Anti-Œdipus'' is an introduction to the [[fascism|nonfascist]] life." Where capitalist society trains us to believe that [[desire]] equals lack and that the only way to meet our desires is to [[Consumption (economics)|consume]], ''Anti-Œdipus'', has a different take: desire does not come from lack, as in the [[Freud]]ian understanding. On the contrary, desire is a [[Economic production|productive]] force. "It is not a theater, but a factory". The opposition to the notion of lack is one of the main criticisms Deleuze and Guattari make both to Freud and [[Marxism]]. Desire is a productive, real force — whereas [[psychoanalysis]] limits desire to [[imagination|imaginary]] [[Fantasy (psychology)|fantasie]]s. | + | In [[Manuel De Landa]]'s book ''[[Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy]]'', the Line of Flight is described as an operator which transcends the real and ascends to the virtual. It is used as a synonym with Deleuze's terms "Dark Precursor" (from his ''[[Difference and Repetition]]'' (1968), "[[desiring machine]]" and "Quasi-Cause" (both from the first volume of ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'', ''[[Anti-Œdipus]]'' (1972)). |
| - | Like their contemporary, [[R.D. Laing]], and like [[Wilhelm Reich]] before them, they link personal psychic repression with social repression. In such a framework, Deleuze and Guattari describe the productive nature of desire as a kind of ''Desiring-Machine'' that functions as a [[circuit breaker]] in a larger "circuit" of various ''other'' machines to which it is connected. And the ''Desiring-Machine'' is at the same time also producing a flow of desire from itself. Deleuze and Guattari imagine a multi-functional universe composed of such machines all connected to each other: ''"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."'' Thus, they opposed Freud's concept of [[Sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]], which led to a necessary [[dualism]] between desiring machines and social production, which had trapped Laing and Reich. Their book is hence both a critique of [[Freud]] and [[Lacan]]'s psychoanalysis, and also of [[Freudo-Marxism]]. They oppose an "inhumane molecular sexuality" to "molar" binary sexuality: ''"making love is not just becoming as one, or even two, but becoming as a hundred thousand."'' Deleuze and Guattari's concept of sexuality is not limited to the connectivity of just ''male'' and ''female'' gender roles, but by the multi-gendered flows that a "hundred thousand" ''Desiring-Machines'' create within their connected universe. | + | ==References== |
| - | The "anti-" part of their critique of the [[Freud]]ian [[Oedipal complex]] begins with that original model's articulation of society based on the [[family]] triangle. 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 [[subject (philosophy)|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]]. It must be noted, however, that they oppose a non-clinical concept of "schizophrenia" as [[deterritorialization]] to the clinical end-result "schizophrenic" (i.e. they never intended to romanticize "mental disorders"; instead, they show, as [[Foucault]], that "psychiatric disorders" are always second to something else... maybe to the "absence d'oeuvre"?). | + | {{reflist}} |
| - | === Body Without Organs === | + | ==Sources== |
| - | In '''Anti-Oedipus''', Deleuze and Guattari begin to develop their concept of the ''BwO'' - [[body without organs]], their term for the changing social body of [[desire]]. 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 ''BwO'' for every instance. Desire is not limited to the affections of a [[subject (philosophy)|subject]]. | + | * [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] and [[Félix Guattari]]. 1972. ''[[Anti-Œdipus]]''. 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 0826476953. |
| + | * ---. 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 0816615152. | ||
| + | * ---. 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 0826476945. | ||
| + | * [[Félix Guattari|Guattari, Félix]]. 1984. ''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics''. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0140551603. | ||
| + | * ---. 1992. ''Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm''. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of ''Chaosmose''. Paris: Editions Galilee. ISBN 0909952256. | ||
| + | * ---. 1995. ''Chaosophy''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270198. | ||
| + | * ---. 1996. ''Soft Subversions''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270309. | ||
| + | * [[Brian Massumi|Massumi, Brian]]. 1992. ''A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari''. Swerve editions. Cambridge, USA and London: MIT. ISBN 0262631431. | ||
| - | In their later work, '''''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]''''' (1980), Deleuze and Guattari eventually differentiate between three kinds of ''BwO'': cancerous, empty, and full. Roughly, the empty ''BwO'' is the ''BwO'' of '''Anti-Oedipus'''. This ''BwO'' is also described as "catatonic" because it is completely de-organ-ized; all flows pass through it freely, with no stopping, and no directing. Even though any form of desire can be produced on it, the empty ''BwO'' is non-productive. The full ''BwO'' is the healthy ''BwO''; it is productive, but not petrified in its organ-ization. The cancerous ''BwO'' is caught in a pattern of endless reproduction of the self-same pattern. | ||
| - | === Territorialization/Deterritorialization === | ||
| - | |||
| - | 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 [[rhizome (metaphor)|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 (ie. his/her beliefs, models, etc.), subsequently leading to a reterritorialization (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]]). | ||
| - | |||
| - | The authors posit that dramatic [[reterritorialization]] often follows [[relative]] deterritorialization, while [[absolute]] deterritorialization is just that... absolute deterritorialization without any reterritorialization. | ||
| - | |||
| - | == "Why did the masses desire fascism?" == | ||
| - | |||
| - | In ''[[Anti-Œdipus]]'', [[Gilles Deleuze]] and [[Félix Guattari]] followed up [[Wilhelm Reich|Reich]]'s problem: "why did the [[working class|masses]] desire [[fascism]]?", which led them to a critique of [[Freudo-Marxism]]. | ||
| - | |||
| - | == See also == | ||
| - | * [[Anti-psychiatry]] | ||
| - | * [[Pierre Clastres]]' ''Society against the State'' (1974) | ||
| - | * [[Structuralism]] | ||
| - | * [[Plane of immanence]] | ||
| - | * [[Schizoanalysis]] | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Revision as of 06:01, 3 June 2010
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A line of flight or line of escape is a concept developed by Gilles Deleuze and used extensively in his work with Félix Guattari. In the first chapter of the second volume of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project, A Thousand Plateaus (1980), the concept is used to define a "rhizome":
Multiplicities are defined by the outside: by the abstract line, the line of flight or deterritorialization according to which they change in nature and connect with other multiplicities. The plane of consistency (grid) is the outside of all multiplicities. The line of flight marks: the reality of a finite number of dimensions that the multiplicity effectively fills; the impossibility of a supplementary dimension, unless the multiplicity is transformed by the line of flight; the possibility and necessity of flattening all of the multiplicities on a single plane of consistency or exteriority, regardless of their number of dimensions.<ref>Deleuze and Guattari (1980, 9-10).</ref>
In Manuel De Landa's book Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy, the Line of Flight is described as an operator which transcends the real and ascends to the virtual. It is used as a synonym with Deleuze's terms "Dark Precursor" (from his Difference and Repetition (1968), "desiring machine" and "Quasi-Cause" (both from the first volume of Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Anti-Œdipus (1972)).
References
Sources
- Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. Anti-Œdipus. 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 0826476953.
- ---. 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 0816615152.
- ---. 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 0826476945.
- Guattari, Félix. 1984. Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin. ISBN 0140551603.
- ---. 1992. Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of Chaosmose. Paris: Editions Galilee. ISBN 0909952256.
- ---. 1995. Chaosophy. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270198.
- ---. 1996. Soft Subversions. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270309.
- Massumi, Brian. 1992. A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari. Swerve editions. Cambridge, USA and London: MIT. ISBN 0262631431.
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