Anti-Oedipus I: Logic of Flows, Lecture 6, 15 February 1972

<p><em>The Deleuze Seminars</em> is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.</p>

<p>During his first year at Vincennes, where Deleuze began in fall 1970, he taught two seminars, back-to-back in the same three-hour weekly sessions, one titled “Logic and Desire”, the other titled “Spinoza’s Logic” (with no documents on either currently available). Hence, the first transcripts available correspond to Deleuze’s second year at Vincennes as he continues to expand the concepts developed for <em>Anti-Oedipus </em>(published in March 1972) but also with the long view of the second volume, <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em>, in progress with Félix Guattari. Focusing on this forthcoming book, Deleuze with Guattari develop only one text for publication corresponding directly to the seminar, their first jointly published essay titled “La synthèse disjonctive”, in the journal <em>L’Arc</em> 43 (1970), an issued dedicated to Pierre Klossowski.</p>

<p>In session 6, 15 February 1972, <strong>which begins in progress, Deleuze focuses initially on the intersection of psychoanalytical concepts with Marxist analysis, hence material developed in chapter III of <em>Anti-Oedipus</em>, but also the framework of schizo-analysis already proposed in previous sessions. Deleuze continues to insist on understanding the unconscious rather in terms of political economy, and specifically concerning “objectities”, i.e. the objects to which economists attached importance for wealth (land for the Physiocrats, the State for mercantilists). Deleuze considers the psychoanalytical reliance on figures such as Oedipus, i.e., on tragedy and myths, and following a student’s comments, Deleuze adds Claude Lévi-Strauss to the Freud-Ricardo duo</strong>, notably his discovery in ethnology of the incest prohibition which he reinserts into the system of lineage. Following a missing segment, Deleuze’s focus jumps to how intensities function at a cellular level, with trips and passages, the egg’s movement similar to the schizo’s stroll, i.e., becomings in intensity. Here Artaud serves as stating that the organism is the enemy of the body without organs, whereas the schizo stroll encompasses passages through zones. To a comment that Deleuze shares with Lacan the idea that a structure only functions as a machinic element and not a structural element, Deleuze argues that this is evident in the context of analysis where the analyst, rather than invent these structures, confirms them, whereas the unconscious ignores Oedipus and castration entirely which are conscious projections on the unconscious. The session ends abruptly, presumably with the recording excluding additional discussion.</p>

<p>No recording of this session is available currently. The original French transcript provided here, in Open Data Text (odt) format, is from the WeDeleuze site, also with the revised French transcription and new English translation in odt format. [WebDeleuze was founded by Richard Pinhas -- a student in Deleuze's seminars -- who, with the Deleuze family's support, developed transcripts and translations of many of the seminars.]</p>

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<p>Les Séminaires de Deleuze sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.</p>

<p>Cette séance 6, le 15 février 1972, est toujours fragmentaire, s’adressant principalement aux questions économiques, d’où la troisième partie de <em>l’Anti-Œdipe</em>, mais également les questions abordées également, huit ans plus tard dans <em>Mille Plateaux</em>. Deleuze continue à insister sur la nécessité de comprendre l’inconscient plutôt en termes d’économie politique, et plus précisément en termes d’« objectité », c’est-à-dire d’objets auxquels les économistes attachent de l’importance pour la richesse (la terre pour les Physiocrates, l’État pour les Mercantilistes). Deleuze s’intéresse au recours psychanalytique à des figures comme Œdipe, c’est-à-dire à la tragédie et aux mythes, et, suivant les remarques d’un étudiant, il ajoute Claude Lévi-Strauss au duo Freud-Ricardo, notamment sa découverte en ethnologie de l’interdit de l’inceste qu’il réinsère dans le système de la lignée.</p>