The concept of unconscious in Deleuze and Guattari: a debate with Psychoanalysis

Abstract

Through Freud and the advent of Psychoanalysis, the concept of unconscious became, in the course of the 20th century, a central category for the self-understanding schemes of our time, transforming our manner of thinking and understanding the phenomena from different fields of culture and knowledge as Psychology, Art, Religion, Philosophy, Politics, Pedagogy and Social Sciences. That is why the aim of our research is to understand a quite precise moment of the reception's history of the psychoanalytical concept of unconscious, namely, the debate with Psychoanalysis proposed by Deleuze and Guattari in Anti-Oedipus. The most general hypothesis of work which animates and guides our research is the follow one: the matrix of all critiques which Deleuze and Guattari address to Psychoanalysis is the critique of its concept of unconscious, that is to say, to understand the issue of this debate, it is necessary to respond the following questions: 1) Why Deleuze and Guattari need to criticize the psychoanalytical concept of unconscious? 2) What does the schizoanalytical concept of unconscious proposed by Deleuze and Guattari as an alternative to the psychoanalytical one consist of? 3) Which are the main differences between the schizoanalytical and psychoanalytical concepts of unconscious? 4) Which are the consequences of the difference between these two concepts? Through a response to these questions we aim to propose a lecture which may contribute to the understanding of the real issue of the debate between Deleuze and Guattari and Psychoanalysis. (AU)