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Capitalism and Schizophrenia - Deleuze and Guattari

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Capitalism and Schizophrenia - Deleuze and Guattari

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Capitalism and Schizophrenia: An Ontological Critique

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*Capitalism and Schizophrenia* is a two-volume project comprising *Anti-Oedipus* (1972) and *A Thousand Plateaus* (1980), written by philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. The work functions as a "universal history" of desire, seeking to understand how human drives are organized, repressed, or liberated within social and economic systems. ## Desiring-Production and the Critique of Lack The authors introduce the concept of **desiring-production**, arguing that desire is not a psychological "lack" or a search for a missing object (as posited by Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis). Instead, desire is a primary, productive force that functions like a machine, constantly connecting to other machines to create reality. In this framework, the social field is directly invested by desire; there is no distinction between the "individual" psyche and the "collective" socio-economic structure. ## The Dual Movement of Capitalism Deleuze and Guattari argue that capitalism occupies a unique historical position because of its relationship with **territorialization**. 1. **Deterritorialization**: Capitalism functions by breaking down traditional barriers, sacred rituals, and rigid social hierarchies (decoding flows). It seeks to make everything exchangeable and fluid to facilitate the movement of capital. 2. **Reterritorialization**: To prevent total collapse into chaos, capitalism simultaneously creates new, artificial boundaries. It recodes flows through the state, the nuclear family, and consumer identity. The "Schizophrenic" in this context is not merely a clinical diagnosis but a process. The "schizo" represents the limit of capitalism—a movement that deterritorializes further than the system can manage, breaking away from the "molar" (rigid, centralized) structures of the state and the ego. ## Rhizomes and Assemblages In the second volume, the authors move toward a non-hierarchical epistemology. They contrast the **arborescent** model of thought—which is linear, hierarchical, and rooted in a single "trunk" of truth—with the **rhizome**. A rhizome is a decentralized network where any point can connect to any other point. This concept underpins their theory of **assemblages**, which are temporary constellations of bodies, ideas, and technologies that produce specific effects without a central governing logic. ## Promising Directions for Exploration 1. **The Body without Organs (BwO)**: How does this concept of a "limit-surface" describe the potential for humans to resist being organized into functional, productive units by the state? 2. **State Apparatus vs. War Machine**: What is the distinction between the "State," which seeks to capture and internalize flows, and the "War Machine," which exists exterior to the state and operates through nomadic movement? 3. **Minor Literature and Politics**: How can marginalized groups utilize "minor" languages or practices to subvert the dominant, "major" cultural frameworks?

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Please explain: State Apparatus vs. War Machine

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State Apparatus and the Nomadic War Machine

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The distinction between the **State Apparatus** and the **War Machine** is a central ontological and political framework developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. It describes two fundamentally different ways of organizing space, thought, and social relations. ## The State Apparatus: Capture and Interiority The State Apparatus is characterized by its function of **capture**. It operates through "striation," a process of partitioning space into fixed grids, hierarchies, and identities. This mechanism seeks to establish a center of interiority—a sovereign point from which all laws and movements are governed. 1. **Axiomatics**: The State functions through fixed rules and "Royal Science," which prioritizes stable definitions and universal laws. 2. **Sedentarization**: It requires populations to be fixed in place, making them legible for taxation, conscription, and administration. 3. **The Form of Interiority**: It attempts to internalize everything within its logic, viewing anything outside as either a resource to be harvested or a threat to be eliminated. ## The War Machine: Exteriority and Mutation The War Machine is not defined by its capacity for violence, but by its **exteriority** to the State. It is "nomadic" and operates in "smooth space"—environments like the sea, the desert, or the digital frontier where movement is fluid and not dictated by a grid. - **The Object is Not War**: Crucially, the primary object of the War Machine is not conflict, but the "composition of a smooth space" and the pursuit of **becoming**. It only becomes a military force when it encounters the State's attempt to capture or stop it. - **Minor Science**: Unlike the State's rigid laws, the War Machine utilizes "minor" or "nomad" science, which focuses on flow, turbulence, and the specific properties of materials (e.g., metallurgy or fluid dynamics). ## Appropriation and Resistance The historical tension between these two forces lies in the State's constant effort to **appropriate** the War Machine. When the State successfully captures a War Machine, it transforms it into a professional military—a disciplined institution that serves the State's territorial interests. This process strips the War Machine of its nomadic character, turning a force of mutation into a tool of conservation. ## Concrete Applications 1. **Urban Planning**: The "State" approach to a city involves rigid zoning and surveillance (striated space). In contrast, "War Machine" dynamics are seen in informal settlements or the "dérive" (drift) of individuals who navigate the city through desire rather than designated paths. 2. **Cybernetics and Hacking**: The internet was originally a smooth space (War Machine) allowing for decentralized flows of information. State Apparatuses have sought to capture this space through regulation, firewalls, and data extraction (striation). 3. **Guerrilla Tactics**: Traditional standing armies (captured War Machines) rely on logistics and hierarchy. Guerrilla movements often maintain the nomadic character of the original War Machine, prioritizing speed, concealment, and the refusal of a fixed front line. ## Related Concepts for Further Exploration - **Smooth vs. Striated Space**: The topological distinction between open, directional space and closed, metric space. - **Lines of Flight**: The paths of escape that allow individuals or groups to leak out of the State's system of capture. - **Assemblages**: How disparate elements (people, tools, ideas) combine to form either a State-aligned or a nomadic entity. - **The Outside**: The philosophical concept of a space that cannot be fully conceptualized or contained by rational, State-centric thought.