Schizoanalysis

Abstract

The seminar of June 21, 1984, is dedicated to the concept of schizoanalysis — an approach developed by Félix Guattari in collaboration with Gilles Deleuze as an alternative to traditional psychoanalysis. Guattari proposes a rethinking of psychoanalytic theory, rejecting the models of Freud and Lacan. He argues that schizoanalysis does not seek to become a new discipline but functions as a tool of meta-modelling, enabling the analysis of how assemblages of enunciation influence semiotic processes and modes of subjectivation. These assemblages, understood as dynamic configurations, include not only linguistic but also non-semiotic, non-subjective, and unconscious elements. Guattari emphasizes the importance of a micropolitics of meaning, where pragmatic effects arise within social and institutional fields rather than solely through the interpretation of signifiers. He introduces the concept of deterritorialization, which avoids the fixation of subjectivity within static structures and instead treats it as a process of singularization connected to machinic — both material and social — flows. In contrast to Freudian libido, conceived as a static energy, schizoanalysis interprets libido as an abstract, deterritorialized force that opens up new possibilities for becoming. Guattari also criticizes the reterritorialization of the unconscious in psychoanalysis, proposing instead that it be mapped as a dynamic system interacting with social, technological, and aesthetic processes. Schizoanalysis thus becomes, according to Guattari, an interdisciplinary approach oriented toward the analysis and transformation of subjectivity.

Translated from the edition: Guattari F. Les schizoanalyses // Chimères. Revue des schizoanalyses. — 1987. — No. 1. — pp. 1–21. DOI: 10.3406/chime.1987.1022. © Bruno et Emmanuelle Guattari fonds IMEC 2025. Published with the kind permission of the rights holders.