Pierre-Félix Guattari ( , ; 30 April 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst,

political philosopher Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

semiotician Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes (semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something, ...

social activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

, and screenwriter. He co-founded

schizoanalysis Schizoanalysis (''or'' ecosophy, pragmatics, micropolitics, rhizomatics, or nomadology) (french: schizoanalyse; ''schizo-'' from Greek σχίζειν ''skhizein'', meaning "to split") is a set of theories and techniques developed by philosopher ...

with Gilles Deleuze, and

ecosophy Ecosophy or ecophilosophy (a portmanteau of ecological philosophy) is a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. The term was coined by the French post-structuralist philosopher and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari and the Norwegian father o ...

with

Arne Næss Arne Dekke Eide Næss (; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term "deep ecology", an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth century ...

, and is best known for his literary and philosophical collaborations with Deleuze, most notably ''

Anti-Oedipus ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe) is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first vol ...

'' (1972) and ''

A Thousand Plateaus ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborativ ...

'' (1980), the two volumes of their theoretical work ''

Capitalism and Schizophrenia ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et Schizophrénie) is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, respectively a philosopher and a psychoanalyst. Its volumes are ''Anti-Oedipus'' ...

''.

Biography

Clinic of La Borde

Guattari was born in Villeneuve-les-Sablons, a working-class suburb of northwest

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France. His father was a factory manager and he was engaged in

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

political activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fr ...

as a teenager, before studying and training under (and was analyzed by) the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in the early

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

. Subsequently, he worked all his life at the experimental psychiatric clinic of La Borde under the direction of Lacan's pupil, the psychiatrist

Jean Oury Jean Oury (5 March 1924 – 15 May 2014) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who helped found the school of institutional psychotherapy. He was the founder and director of the psychiatric hospital La Borde clinic at Cour-Cheverny, France wh ...

. He first met Oury at a private psychiatric clinic in Saumery in the Loire region at the suggestion of Oury's brother Fernand, who had been Guattari's high school teacher. Guattari followed Oury to La Borde in 1955, two years after it had been established. La Borde was a venue for conversation among many students of philosophy,

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). ...

, and social work. One particularly novel orientation developed at La Borde consisted of the suspension of the classical analyst/analysand pair in favour of an open confrontation in group therapy. In contrast to the Freudian school's individualistic style of

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

, this practice studied the dynamics of several subjects in complex interaction. It led Guattari into a broader philosophical exploration of, and political engagement with, a vast array of intellectual and cultural domains ( philosophy,

linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, etc.).

1960s to 1970s

From 1955 to 1965, Guattari edited and contributed to ''La Voie Communiste'' (''Communist Way''), a

newspaper. He supported anti-colonialist struggles as well as the

Italian Autonomists Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendenc ...

. Guattari also took part in the G.T.P.S.I., which gathered many psychiatrists at the beginning of the 1960s and created the Association of Institutional Psychotherapy in November 1965. It was at the same time that he founded, along with other militants, the F.G.E.R.I. (Federation of Groups for Institutional Study & Research) and its review ''Recherche'' (''Research''), working on philosophy, psychoanalysis, ethnology,

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

, mathematics,

, etc. The F.G.E.R.I. came to represent aspects of the multiple political and cultural engagements of Guattari: the Group for Young Hispanics, the Franco-Chinese Friendships (in the times of the people's communes), the opposition activities with the wars in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, the participation in the M.N.E.F., with the U.N.E.F., the policy of the offices of psychological academic aid (B.A.P.U.), the organization of the University Working Groups (G.T.U.), but also the reorganizations of the training courses with the Centers of Training to the Methods of Education Activities (C.E.M.E.A.) for psychiatric male nurses, as well as the formation of a Fellowship of Nurses (Amicales d'infirmiers) (in 1958), the studies on architecture and the projects of construction of a day hospital for "students and young workers". In 1967, he appeared as one of the founders of OSARLA (Organization of solidarity and Aid to the Latin-American Revolution). In 1968, Guattari met

Daniel Cohn-Bendit Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit (; ; born 4 April 1945) is a French-German politician of Jewish descent. He was a student leader during the unrest of May 1968 in France and was also known during that time as ''Dany le Rouge'' (French for "Danny the Red" ...

Jean-Jacques Lebel Jean-Jacques Lebel (born in Paris on June 30, 1936) is a French artist. His father was also a poet, translator, poetry publisher, political activist, art collector, and art historian. Besides his heterogeneous artworks and poetry, Lebel is also k ...

, and

Julian Beck Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing The Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher ...

. He was involved in the large-scale French protests of May 1968, starting from the Movement of 22 March. It was in the aftermath of 1968 that Guattari met Gilles Deleuze at the

University of Vincennes Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis (french: Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis) is a public university in Paris, France. Once part of the historic University of Paris, it is now an autonomous public institution. It is one of the th ...

. Then he began to lay the groundwork for ''

'' (1972), which Michel Foucault described as "an introduction to the non-fascist life" in his preface to the book. In 1970, he created ), which developed the approach explored in the ''Recherches'' journal. In 1973, Guattari was tried and fined for committing an "outrage to public decency" for publishing an issue of ''Recherches'' on

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

. In 1977, he created the CINEL for "new spaces of freedom" before joining the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...

with his "

" in the

1980s File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 420px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, ''Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the ...

1980s to 1990s

In his last book, ''Chaosmosis'' (1992), Guattari returned to the question of subjectivity: "How to produce it, collect it, enrich it, reinvent it permanently in order to make it compatible with mutant Universes of value?" This concern runs through all of his works, from ''Psychoanalysis and Transversality'' (a collection of articles from 1957 to 1972), through ''Years of Winter'' (1980–1986) and ''Schizoanalytic Cartographies'' (1989), to his collaboration with Deleuze, '' What is Philosophy?'' (1991). In ''Chaosmosis'', Guattari proposes an analysis of subjectivity in terms of four functors: (1) material, energetic, and semiotic fluxes; (2) concrete and abstract machinic phyla; (3) virtual universes of value; and (4) finite existential territories. This scheme attempts to grasp the heterogeneity of components involved in the production of subjectivity, as Guattari understands it, which include both signifying semiotic components as well as "a-signifying semiological dimensions" (which work "in parallel or independently of" any signifying function that they may have).

Later years

On 29 August 1992, two weeks after an interview for the Greek television curated by Yiorgos Veltsos, Guattari died in La Borde from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

.Obituary: Felix Guattari
by

James Kirkup James Harold Kirkup, FRSL (23 April 1918 – 10 May 2009) was an English poet, translator and travel writer. He wrote over 45 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays. He wrote under many pen-names including James Falconer, Aditya Jha ...

, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 31 August 1992Felix Guattari, a Psychoanalyst And Is Dead at 62
by Alan Riding, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 3 September 1992 In 1995, the posthumous release of Guattari's ''Chaosophy'' published essays and interviews concerning Guattari's work as director of the experimental

La Borde clinic La Borde is a psychiatric clinic that opened in 1953, near the town of Cour-Cheverny in the Loire Valley of France. Still in operation today, La Borde has been a model in the field of institutional psychotherapy where citizens actively participate ...

and his collaborations with Deleuze. The collection includes essays such as "Balance-Sheet Program for Desiring Machines," cosigned by Deleuze (with whom he coauthored ''Anti-Oedipus'' and ''A Thousand Plateaus''), and "Everybody Wants To Be a Fascist." It provides an introduction to Guattari's theories on "

", a process that develops

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

but which pursues a more experimental and collective approach towards analysis. In 1996, another collection of Guattari's essays, lectures, and interviews, ''Soft Subversions'', was published, which traces the development of his thought and activity throughout the 1980s ("the winter years"). His analyses of art, cinema, youth culture, economics, and power formations, develop concepts such as "micropolitics," "schizoanalysis," and "becoming-woman," which aim to liberate subjectivity and open up new horizons for political and creative resistance to the standardizing and homogenizing processes of global capitalism (which he calls "Integrated World Capitalism") in the "post-media era." For example, he used the term "micropolitics" to delimit a certain level of observation of social practices (the unconscious economy, where there is a certain flexibility in the expression of desire and institution) and, practically, to define, in a segregated world, the field of intervention of "people who work to interest themselves in the discourse of

the other In phenomenology, the terms the Other and the Constitutive Other identify the other human being, in their differences from the Self, as being a cumulative, constituting factor in the self-image of a person; as acknowledgement of being real; h ...

Works

Works translated into English

* Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. ''

''. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of ''

''. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of ''L'Anti-Oedipe''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. . * 1975. '' Kafka: Toward 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 littérature mineure''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. . * 1980. ''

''. Trans.

Brian Massumi Brian Massumi (; born 1956) is a Canadian philosopher and social theorist. Massumi's research spans the fields of art, architecture, cultural studies, political theory and philosophy. His work explores the intersection between power, perception, ...

. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of ''

''. 2 vols. 1972–1980. Trans. of ''Mille plateaux''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. . * 1991. '' What Is Philosophy?''. Trans. Graham Burchell and Hugh Tomlinson. London and New York: Verso, 1994. Trans. of ''Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?''. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. . * 1979. ''The Machinic Unconscious: Essays in Schizoanalysis''. Trans. Taylor Adkins. Los Angeles, CA:

Semiotext(e) Semiotext(e) is an independent publisher of critical theory, fiction, philosophy, art criticism, activist texts and non-fiction. History Founded in 1974, ''Semiotext(e)'' began as a journal that emerged from a semiotics reading group led by Syl ...

, 2011. Trans. of ''L'inconscient machinique: Essais de schizo-analyse''. Paris: Recherches. * 1977. ''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics''. Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984. . * 1989a. ''Schizoanalytic Cartographies''. Trans Andrew Goffey. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2013. Trans. of ''Cartographies schizoanalytiques''. Paris: Editions Galilée . * 1989b. ''The Three Ecologies''. Trans. Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton. London and New York: Continuum, 2000. Trans. of ''Les trois écologies''. Paris: Editions Galilée. . * 1992. ''Chaosmosis: An Ethico-Aesthetic Paradigm''. Trans. Paul Bains and Julian Pefanis. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 1995. Trans. of ''Chaosmose''. Paris: Editions Galilee. . * 1995. ''Chaosophy (Texts and Interviews 1972 to 1977 )''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). . * 1996. ''Soft Subversions (Texts and Interviews 1977 to 1985)''. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). . * 1996. ''The Guattari Reader''. Ed. Gary Genosko. Blackwell Readers ser. Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. . * 2006. '' The Anti-Oedipus Papers''. Ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. Kélina Gotman. New York: Semiotext(e). . * 2015. ''Lines of Flight: For Another World of Possibilities''. Bloomsbury Academic. . * 2015. ''Machinic Eros: Writings on Japan''. Eds. Gary Genosko and Jay Hetrick. Univocal Publishing. . * 2015. ''Psychoanalysis and Transversality: Texts and Interviews 1955–1971''. MIT Press. * Guattari, Félix, and

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist, and former metalworker who is the president-elect of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Party ...

. 2003. ''The Party Without Bosses: Lessons on Anti-Capitalism From Guattari and Lula''. Ed. Gary Genosko.

Arbeiter Ring Publishing Arbeiter Ring Publishing, now known as ARP Books, is a worker-owned and operated independent book publisher and distributor that specializes in progressive, radical and anarchist literature (both fiction and non-fiction). Founded by Todd Scarth a ...

. . * Guattari, Félix and

Toni Negri Antonio "Toni" Negri (born 1 August 1933) is an Italian Spinozistic-Marxist sociologist and political philosopher, best known for his co-authorship of ''Empire'' and secondarily for his work on Spinoza. Born in Padua, he became a political ph ...

. 1985. ''Communists Like Us: New Spaces of Liberty, New Lines of Alliance''. Trans. Michael Ryan. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e), 1990. Trans. of ''Nouvelles espaces de liberté''. Paris: Bedon. . * Guattari, Félix, and Suely Rolnik. 1986. ''Molecular Revolution in Brazil''. New York: Semiotext(e), 2008. Trans. of ''Micropolitica: Cartografias do Desejo''. .

Untranslated works

Note: Many of the essays found in these works have been individually translated and can be found in the English collections. * ''La révolution moléculaire'' (1977, 1980). The 1980 version (éditions 10/18) contains substantially different essays from the 1977 version. * ''Les années d'hiver, 1980-1985'' (1986). * ''Un Amour d'UIQ. Scénario pour un film qui manque'', edited and with a visual essay by Graeme Thomson & Silvia Maglioni (Paris, Editions Amsterdam, 2012. The edition contains various screenplays and a selection of unpublished archives) Other collaborations: * ''L’intervention institutionnelle'' (Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot, n. 382 - 1980). On institutional pedagogy. With Jacques Ardoino, G. Lapassade, Gerard Mendel, Rene Lourau. * ''Pratique de l'institutionnel et politique'' (1985). With

and Francois Tosquelles. * ''Desiderio e rivoluzione. Intervista a cura di Paolo Bertetto'' (Milan: Squilibri, 1977). Conversation with Franco Berardi (Bifo) and Paolo Bertetto.

References

External links

Fractal Ontology
(with unpublished, English translations of Guattari and others)
"Desire Was Everywhere"
by Adam Shatz, '' London Review of Books'', Vol. 32 No. 24 · 16 December 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Guattari, Felix 1930 births 1992 deaths 20th-century French essayists 20th-century French historians 20th-century French male writers 20th-century French philosophers 20th-century French psychologists 20th-century French screenwriters Accelerationism Analysands of Jacques Lacan Anti-psychiatry Autonomism Biopolitics Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Continental philosophers Critical theorists Cultural critics Environmental philosophers Environmental writers Epistemologists Founders of philosophical traditions Franz Kafka scholars French activists French anti-capitalists French Communist writers French essayists French ethicists French logicians French male non-fiction writers French Marxist historians French Marxist writers French political philosophers French psychoanalysts French screenwriters French semioticians French Trotskyists Green thinkers Hegel scholars Hume scholars Historians of philosophy History of psychology Kant scholars Libertarian socialists Literacy and society theorists Literary theorists Metaphilosophers Metaphysicians Moral philosophers Nietzsche scholars Ontologists People from Oise Philosophers of art Philosophers of culture Philosophers of education Philosophers of ethics and morality Philosophers of history Philosophers of literature Philosophers of logic Philosophers of mathematics Philosophers of mind Philosophers of psychology Philosophers of science Philosophers of social science Philosophy writers Postmodern theory Postmodern writers Poststructuralists Scholars of Marxism Social commentators Social critics Social philosophers Spinoza scholars Theorists on Western civilization Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis faculty University of Paris alumni Writers about activism and social change