Anti-Oedipus I

When it first appeared in France, in 1972, Anti-Oedipus was hailed as a masterpiece by some and decried as “a work of heretical madness” by others. As Deleuze indicates in this seminar, he had already spent the 1970-71 academic year outlining the ongoing collaboration with Félix Guattari, so given that the book’s publication (appearing in early 1972), these sessions constitute a continuation of the previous year’s work, allowing Deleuze to refine the developing with Guattari, most notably concerning the tasks of schizoanalysis and the intersection of the fields of political economy and psychoanalysis, as well as the continuing dominant and oppressive impact of this intersection both on society and subjectivity.

In his “Letter to a Harsh Critic” that appears in Negotiations, Deleuze describes his collaboration: “And then there was my meeting with Felix Guattari, the way we understood and complemented, depersonalized and singularized – – in short, loved — one another. Out of that came Anti-Oedipus, and it takes things a step further.” What more can be said?