On Anarchy & Schizoanalysis

by Rolando Pérez

Using the anti-oedipal insights of Deleuze and Guattaris classic work on capitalism and schizophrenia, Perez argues for anti-fascist strategies in everyday life. This book is a first step in applying schizoanalytic theories to concrete social issues like feminism, the family, madness, desire, advertising, sexuality, subcultures, andstructure of all structurescapitalism itself. This is not a book about the joys of linguistic masturbation la Derrida, Barthes, de Man, etc., but of issues of everyday life: how we interact with others, how we oppress othersmostly, how we oppress ourselves.

Genres: Anarchism, Theory, Philosophy

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

Reviews

[Sunblinding · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable attempt to demonstrate the lines of continuity between so-called poststructuralist thought and anarchism, particularly with regards to in the works of Deleuze & Guattari and Derrida, granting some of their more intractable ideas a greater degree of legibility.

At its best - as in the initial essay on Nietzsche and anti-psychiatry- Perez advances a productive reading of anarchy/anarchism through the deployment of the deconstructionist's method, while later passages discuss brilliantly the significance of the body in Artaud's work. At its worst, it overly fetishizes the Deleuzo-Guattarian conceptual apparatus, and one is left to wonder whether there has transpired the simple substitutions of Father for Fathers...

Just as any movement that makes transgression its letter remains utterly invested in a prior legislating act, so schizoanalysis is almost comedically bound to psychoanalysis, and one is thankful this fad has mostly withered.

[Jerome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended to me for a while now, I finally got around to reading Rolando Perez's On Anarchy & Schizoanalysis. The strength of the book is Perez's ability to take the broad, abstract concepts of Deleuze & Guattari and give them corporeality by applying these concepts to an(archist) practice. What's with the parentheses? This is from Perez himself, who uses "an(archy)" mainly to separate himself from the 80's punk version of anarchism in favor of a proto-post-anarchism, but also because the parentheses reflect the post-modern propensity for Heideggerian wordplay which actually had some intellectual cache at the time. This - along with the name-dropping of everybody who was cool in the 1980s - makes the text feel a little dated. That said, there are some strong points. He easily encapsulates a number Continental thinkers whose work is notoriously difficult by hitting them where their ideas intersect with praxis. Perez connects this post-modern flight into abstraction with Capitalism through D&G's concept of "bodies without organs". Also noteworthy is his pointing out that the Western tradition has always viewed desire as fundamentally a "lack", and that realizing the positive, creative character of desire necessary for liberation. This theme is developed further in his chapter on feminism, where he shows the Western view of "absence" permeating Freud's misogynistic psychology. It's too bad the book ends at this point. I would have liked to see more elaboration on the positive structure of desire vis. Anti-Oedipus , since so much of D&G's heady concepts are made concrete in this text.

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first text on D&G I have come across that actually elaborates on their ideas in a clear and easily-understandable manner. I have tried to think of the applicability of D&G's ideas in my own life and manner of viewing the world, and Perez has finally given me insight into how and why lines of flight, bodies without organs, rhizomes, etc. are important to my own life project. This books gives me motivation to re-read some of Capitalism and Schizophrenia in order to seek out new thoughts.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent first chapter, but I had read most of the rest before (the chapter on art is surprisingly good). In terms of form a real joy to read; a metaphorical way of writing I'm not very accustomed to.

[Don Socha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very stimulating in its layout of antipsychiatry and schizo-analysis, merging Nietzsche and Deleuze. But the illustrations, from _Optical and Geometrical Allover Patterns_, by Jean Larcher are worth the price of admission, though I don't recall their being mentioned in the text.