Félix Guattari
French psychoanalyst and co-founder of schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze.
Pierre-Félix Guattari was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his literary and philosophical collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, particularly the two volumes of their theoretical work *Capitalism and Schizophrenia*: *Anti-Oedipus* (1972) and *A Thousand Plateaus* (1980). Guattari co-founded schizoanalysis with Deleuze and independently created ecosophy. Born in a working-class suburb of northwest Paris, Guattari was drawn to Trotskyist political activism as a teenager. In the early 1950s, he became an apprentice and analysand of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. He then worked at the experimental psychiatric clinic of La Borde under Lacan’s pupil Jean Oury, whom he had first met at a private clinic in the Loire Valley. At La Borde, a novel therapeutic orientation suspended the classical analyst/analysand pair in favor of open group therapy, studying the dynamics of multiple subjects in complex interaction. This practice led Guattari into broader philosophical and political engagement with domains including philosophy, ethnology, linguistics, education, mathematics, and architecture. From 1955 to 1965, he edited a Trotskyist newspaper and supported anti-colonial struggles and the Italian Autonomists. He helped found the Federation of Groups for Institutional Study & Research and its journal *Recherche*, which addressed philosophy, psychoanalysis, and other fields. In 1968, he met Deleuze at the University of Vincennes and began laying the groundwork for *Anti-Oedipus*. Guattari was later tried and fined for publishing an issue of *Recherche* on homosexuality. In the 1980s, he joined the environmental movement with his ecosophy. In his final book, *Chaosmosis* (1992), he returned to the question of how to produce, collect, and reinvent subjectivity.
- born
- 30 March 1930
- died
- 29 August 1992
- field
- Psychoanalysis, political philosophy, semiotics
- nationality
- French
- known_for
- Co-founding schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze; creating ecosophy; co-authoring Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus
Lore & Background
Guattari was born in Villeneuve-les-Sablons, a working-class suburb of northwest Paris. As a teenager he engaged in Trotskyist political activism, and in the early 1950s he served as apprentice and analysand to French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. He later worked at the experimental psychiatric clinic of La Borde under Jean Oury, whom he first met at a private clinic in Saumery. At La Borde, a novel orientation suspended the classical analyst/analysand pair in favor of open confrontation in group therapy, studying the dynamics of several subjects in complex interaction.
From 1955 to 1965 Guattari edited and contributed to the Trotskyist newspaper La Voie Communiste. He supported anti-colonialist struggles and the Italian Autonomists, and co-founded the F.G.E.R.I. and its review Recherche. In 1968 he met Gilles Deleuze at the University of Vincennes, and they began laying the groundwork for Anti-Oedipus. In 1973 Guattari was tried and fined for publishing an issue of Recherches on homosexuality, charged with 'outrage to public decency.' In the 1980s he joined the environmental movement with his ecosophy.
Reader's Guide
Guattari's significance lies in his radical rethinking of psychoanalysis and politics. With Deleuze, he argued that the institution of psychoanalysis had become a center of power, its confessional techniques resembling those of Christianity, and that it had historically embraced a police state. Their work Anti-Oedipus was described by Michel Foucault as 'an introduction to the non-fascist life.' Guattari viewed the primary commodity produced under capitalism as subjectivity itself, and sought to produce, collect, and reinvent subjectivity to make it compatible with 'mutant Universes of value.' His concept of schizoanalysis pursued a more experimental and collective approach than Freudian analysis. His later work on ecosophy and micropolitics aimed to liberate subjectivity and open new horizons for resistance to global capitalism, which he called 'Integrated World Capitalism.' His legacy includes influencing post-structuralist philosophy, institutional psychotherapy, and environmental thought.
Did You Know?
- Guattari was tried and fined in 1973 for publishing an issue of Recherches on homosexuality, charged with 'outrage to public decency.'
- He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze and independently created ecosophy.
- Guattari worked at the experimental psychiatric clinic of La Borde under Jean Oury, where group therapy replaced the classical analyst/analysand pair.
- He viewed the primary commodity produced under capitalism as subjectivity itself.
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