Anti-Oedipus II, Lecture 3, 14 May 1973

<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>In his third year at Vincennes, Deleuze continues to expand the concepts developed for <em>Anti-Oedipus</em> with the long view of the second volume, <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em>, in progress. Moreover, alongside these sessions, Deleuze alone and with Guattari develop texts for publication that correspond directly to the seminar: Deleuze’s conference presentation, ‘Nomadic Thought’ for the July 1972 conference ‘Nietzsche aujourd’hui?’ at Cerisy-la-Salle is published in 1973; second, Deleuze and Guattari’s ‘Bilan-Programme pour machines désirantes’ appears in <em>Minuit </em>2 (January 1973), and then is included as an appendix to the revised edition of <em>Anti-Oedipus </em>(1975).</p>

<p>In session 3, 14 May 1973, given the gap between sessions, Deleuze makes only a fleeting reference to Castaneda. Much of this session develops material in the plateau 6 (“How to Make Yourself a Body without Organs”) in <em>A Thousand Plateaus.</em> Deleuze is clear that caution is required in creating a body without organ, and he identifies a three-fold blockage of its functioning on different strata forcing the body without organs into biunivocal relations: first, the stratum of organization; second, the stratum of signification presupposed by the first stratum, that is, the angle of signifying (<em>signifiance</em>), a cut occurring within representation; and the third stratum, presupposed in the second one, corresponds to a point of subjectivation, variable for each individual, from which both the angle of signifying and the dominant real emerge, that is, within the organization machine. With reference to an Artaud text, Deleuze argues that the three strata form God’s judgment, or the despotic system, and he examines different domains for this system’s manifestation. He insists that one must actively engage in managing the body without organs, hence the importance of “making oneself” a body without organs, that is, a functioning, destratified body without organs, undoing the three strata within oneself: destroying organization, interpretation and subjectivation. He suggests a list of occurrences on the body without organs, concluding this summary by describing the body without organs as an intensive matrix or desert as locus populated by intensive multiplicities and lines of deterritorialization.</p>

<p>No recording of this session is available currently, nor are the French transcripts at WebDeleuze of adequate quality. Hence the original French transcript provided here, in Open Data Text (odt) format, is from the Le Terrier web site. A revised French transcription of the WebDeleuze transcription and its new English translation in odt format is also included. [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. Le Terrier is a multimedia site providing a small but important set of Deleuze transcripts, as well as documents by numerous other writers and artists, at http://www.le-terrier.net/index2.html.]</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>Dans la séance 3, le 14 mai 1973, le Corps sans Organes, un concept introduit dans <em>l’Anti-Oedipe</em>, sera considérablement développé, surtout dans Mille plateaux, et ici Deleuze développe de nombreux aspects de ce concept, notamment le blocage en trois segments du fonctionnement du corps sans organes : d’abord, la strate d’organisation ; ensuite, la strate de signification présupposée par la première strate ; et une troisième strate, aussi présupposée par celle qui précède, qui correspond à un point de subjectivation, variable pour chaque individu. Ainsi, pour se faire un corps sans organes déstratifié, s’agit-il de défaire ces trois strates de blocage.</p>