Topics in 20 th Century French Philosophy II (Term 1, 2009/10)
“Desire Beyond Psychoanalysis: Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus ”
Professor Miguel de Beistegui
S2.56 M.J.Beistegui@warwick.ac.uk
Programme of Lectures and Seminars:
Week 2:
Lecture: The Problem of Desire in 20 th
Century French Philosophy
Week 3:
Lecture: The Genesis of Anti-Oedipus
Reading: G. Deleuze, Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza , Chapters 14-16
Week 4:
Seminar: The Imperialism of Oedipus
Reading: G. Deleuze and F. Guattari, Anti-Oedipus
, Chapter 2 (“Psycho-analysis and
Familialism: The Holy Family”), §§ 1 (“The Imperialism of Oedipus”) and 2 (“Three
Texts of Freud”)
Background reading: a. S. Freud, “President Schreber” (1911); “ ‘A Child is Being Beaten’: A Contribution to the Study of the Origin of Sexual Perversions’” (1919); “Analysis Terminable and
Interminable” (1937) b. S. Freud, New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis , Lecture 33: Femininity
(1933) + L. Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman , Part One
Week 5:
Seminar: The Three Syntheses of the Unconscious
Reading: Anti-Oedipus
, Chapter 2, §§ 3-6
Week 6:
Seminar: Schizophrenia vs Neurosis
Reading: Anti-Oedipus
, Chapter 2, §§ 7-9
Background Reading:
Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilisation (London: Routledge, 1956), Part I.
Reich, Wilhelm. The Function of the Orgasm , trans. Vincent R. Carfagno (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1973), especially Chapter 6; The Mass Psychology of
Fascism , trans. Vincent R. Carfagno (London: Souvenir Press, 1972), especially
Chapter V-VII.
Week 7:
Seminar: The Desiring Machines
Reading: Anti-Oedipus , Chapter 1.
Week 8:
Seminar: The Destructive Task of Schizo-analysis
Reading: Anti-Oedipus
, Chapter 4, §§ 1-3

Week 9:
Seminar: The Constructive Task of Schizo-analysis
Reading: Anti-Oedipus , Chapter 4, §§ 4-5
Week 10:
Seminar: Concluding Discussion
Bibliography:
Primary Sources:
Deleuze, Gilles:
Spinoza et le problème de l’expression (Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1969).
Trans. Joughin, M., Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (New York: Zone Books,
1990). Chapters 14-16.
Spinoza: Philosophie pratique , (Paris: Minuit, 1981). Translated Hurley, R.,
Spinoza: Practical Philosophy (San Francisco: City Lights, 1988). Chapters 2 and 3
+ Chapter 4 (see: Desire).
Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix:
Kafka: Pour une littérature mineure
(Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1975).
Trans. Polan, D., Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature (Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press, 1987). Chapter 5.
Capitalisme et schizophrénie tome 1: l’Anti-Œdipe
(Paris: Les Éditions de
Minuit, 1972). Trans. Hurley, R., Seem, M., and Lane, H., Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (London: The Athlone Press, 1984). Chapters 1, 2 and 4.
Irigaray, Luce:
Speculum, de l’autre femme
(Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1974). Trans.
Gill, Gillian C., Speculum of the Other Woman (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1985). Part One.
Background Reading:
Freud, Sigmund:
“Psycho-analytic Notes on an Autobiographical Account of a Case of Paranoia
(Dementia Paranoides)” (1911),
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological
Works of Sigmund Freud , ed. James Strachey (London: Hogarth Press and the
Institute of Psycho-Analysis), Volume 12, 9-82.
“ ‘A Child is Being Beaten’: A Contribution to the Study of the Origin of
Sexual Perversions” (1919), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological
Works of Sigmund Freud , Volume 17, 179-204.
“Analysis Terminable and Interminable” (1937),
The Standard Edition of the
Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Volume 23, 250-252.
New introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, Lecture 33: Femininity (1933),
The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud ,
Volume
22, 136-157.
“Formulations on the Two Principles of Mental Functioning” (1911), “The
Unconscious” (1915), “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920), “The Ego and the Id”
(1923) in On Metapsychology . The Penguin Freud Library, Volume 11. London:
Penguin Books, 1991.

The Interpretation of Dreams II , The Standard Edition of the Complete
Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , Volume 5, Chapter 7.
Totem and Taboo . The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological
Works of Sigmund Freud . Volume 13.
Lacan, Jacques:
“The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I” (1949); “The
Freudian Thing” (1955); “The Signification of the Phallus” (1958) ; “The Subversion of the Subject and the Dialectic of Desire in the Freudian Unconscious” (1960) in
Écrits: A Selection
, trans. Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge, 1989).
Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization (London: Routledge, 1956).
Reich, Wilhelm. The Function of the Orgasm, trans. Vincent R. Carfagno (New
York: Simon & Schuster, 1973), especially Chapter 6; The Mass Psychology of
Fascism , trans. Vincent R. Carfagno (London: Souvenir Press, 1972), especially
Chapter V-VII.
Girard, René, “Delirium as System,” translated by Paisley N. Livingston and Tobin
Siebers in Gary Genosko (ed.), Deleuze and Guattari: Critical Assessments of
Leading Philosophers (London: Routledge, 2001), 679-712.
Buchanan, Ian,
Deleuze and Guattari’s
Anti-Oedipus (London: Continuum, 2008).
Students are also invited to consult John Protevi’s website
(http://www.protevi.com/john/DG/index.html), in which they will find a very useful detailed outline of Anti-Oedipus as well as further bibliographical information and notes, including by Michael Hardt.