Was Guattari REALLY an "Intellectual Imposter"? An Introduction to La Borde and Guattari's Life Work

In this video, we explore the claim that Félix Guattari is an "intellectual imposter", as asserted by Sokal, Bricmont and Dawkins in 1998. What did he do with his life? Why was his work so hard to understand, especially back in 1998? Was he really an "intellectual imposter" with "strong ambitions to succeed in academia"? And will I ever learn how to pronounce words correctly?
MAN i feel dumb for not bringing up electroshock therapy maybe next time
Sources:
- La Borde: A Clinic Unlike Any Other - Félix Guattari (Found in Chaosophy)
- Institutional Intervention - Interview with Félix Guattari (Found in Soft Subversions)
- Psychoanalysis Should Get a Grip on Life - Félix Guattari (Found in Soft Subversions)
- Intersecting Lives - François Dosse
- Fifty years chlorpromazine: a historical perspective (PMCID: PMC2655089) www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Footage:
- La Borde, le droit à la folie
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Discord: / discord
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Itch.io: punishedfelix.itch.io/

[@T.R.A.I.N.I.N.G.]

dawkins calling anyone else an "intellectual imposter" is hilariously ironic.

[@94josema]

Please explain why.

[@anonymoushuman8344]

People mostly don't realize that leading post-structuralists were working, in part, from radically non-ordinary states of consciousness.

[@jam1087]

What exactly please are these Radically non-ordinary states of U'nconsciousness Which these 'intellectuals' Happen to exist If you do not mind For I am trying all that I can find

[@1videoormore]

U mean he was high as fuck?

[@YeahThatsTough]

Pedophilia ?

[@dethkon]

I’m a fan of Lacan/Freud and D&G, but I can’t imagine reading Lacan without knowledge of Freud, or Guattari without knowledge of Lacan. The whole Sokol Affair is amusing at best, but vastly blown out of proportion. Once I studied Lacan, I read anti-Oedipus again and understood what they were trying to do with MUCH more clarity.

[@PunishedFelix]

Yeah it's definitely not something you can just jump into. I did get interested in Guattari through disability politics and was blown away by his political endeavors but if anything that got me into learning a bit about Lacan so I could better understand him!

[@ailblentyn]

It’s interesting that Freud is so fundamental to our world, but so unfashionable that undergraduates just won’t read him. That’s my impression, at least.

[@miguelangelcote9168]

What should i read of Lacan?

[@dreamingdreamerdream]

@@miguelangelcote9168nothing.

[@faustovalentinneumann673]

@@miguelangelcote9168to understand D&G

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

Thanks for this lovely information contextualizing Guattari’s work! I’ve always found it interesting to mark how Deleuze’s works were influenced by the addition of Guattari in ‘68. For me, Guattari adds a dynamism and unpredictability to the D&G combo and also wider breadth of concepts (ecology, animal behaviors, the refrain as a central focus) that truly elevates their collective work. Love your content :)

[@PunishedFelix]

He really has that schizo energy in his own stuff, I love him for that. Plugging him into Deleuze was like a new kind of machine.

[@floraglia]

@@PunishedFelix Barf out the fucking-around-o-maniacal schizo flow 🔥

[@tcmackgeorges12]

14:07 I do have to say, that what did they expect? To read something like in the Anti-oedipus would involve an individual to have a decent understanding of a bunch of other philosophers and psychoanalytic traditions, of course it ended up in the hands of out of touch academics and not radicals on the street. That’s not to say that radicals on the street can Take the time to learn about this traditions to read It, it’s just that it is written in a way that is extremely inaccessible to the average person.

[@PunishedFelix]

Yeah I can definitely agree with that. I think the language is both necessary and inaccessible. It really takes someone who can both communicate these ideas and promote them to make that happen. I guess they just hoped it would along with more academic people getting on board.

[@tcmackgeorges12]

@@PunishedFelix which is why I argue that we need “good academics” people who can teach young adults and the working class the importance that this studf

[@dethkon]

I was literally given a copy of anti-Oedipus at the home of an anarchist radical I met in the streets during the George Ford Uprisings, so… 😂

[@tcmackgeorges12]

@@dethkon that’s cool and everything but it doesn’t take away from my point. Did D&G write this book with the intention to make change in the streets? Hell yeah! But is the language so technical that it demands the work and effort that only most academics and students have the patience for? I’d also say yes 🤷🏽‍♂️.

[@veritasetcaritas]

@@PunishedFelix There are some very good observations in this thread. * "To read something like in the Anti-oedipus would involve an individual to have a decent understanding of a bunch of other philosophers and psychoanalytic traditions" * "it is written in a way that is extremely inaccessible to the average person" * "I’m a fan of Lacan/Freud and D&G, but I can’t imagine reading Lacan without knowledge of Freud, or Guattari without knowledge of Lacan." * "But is the language so technical that it demands the work and effort that only most academics and students have the patience for? I’d also say yes" This is what I said myself.

[@JulesEvans]

This is great and deserves more views. thank you for putting it together

[@JulesEvans]

I think the soundtrack / music is wrong though - sounds like SuperMarioKart haha

[@PunishedFelix]

Lol sorry

[@bramsanjanssan4908]

Great work in outlining important en complex matter in a understandable way. I also love the upbeat music!

[@thebaryonacousticoscillati5679]

A mate of mine summed it up when he said he'd thought about reading Guattari but he had no time deleuze... :)

[@mk2389]

Booo hiss

[@ginapetrea]

The not “selling seminars and self-help books” bit ..such a sharp dagger

[@taisramirez8891]

Really cool insightful video, thanks

[@lacanian2080]

Is this footage actually from La Borde? If so, could you provide us with the source?? ☺

[@PunishedFelix]

The footage is from "La Borde, le droit à la folie"

[@ruperterskin2117]

Cool. Thanks for sharing.

[@Zentapir]

This is a great approach to Guattari and a much needed help to understand French philosophy. Thanks 🌝

[@liammcooper]

Excellent work. The whole Sokol thing is hilarious, because you can tell these analytic-empirically minded types thought they were so above it all that they could mock continental philosopher's jargon; but in the last few decades, we've seen the 'repeatability problem' plague the hardest of hard sciences, thereby showing that all academics are essentially making it up -- it's just the continental philosophers are honest about their inability to articulate capital-T 'Truth', while the misguided empiricists still believed in their own dogma.

[@PunishedFelix]

Thank you! I made the science wars series cuz I was so mad when I realized how hard I was swindled! Thats what I love about Guattari, he says a lot in interviews and also the Anti Oedipus papers openly how much he sucks at trying to find the right words for things and he just throws whatever works. He's so earnest about it lol. Imagine being Deleuze having to read through him randomly talking about stuff between his really crazy intense explanations on power signs and stuff Dawkins and Sokal criticize him for making no sense not realizing he says in summary in one interview, "yeah? Well maybe it's not for you, i talk that way for a reason lmao. I just don't like it when people act like they don't understand what I'm saying when talking about major politics." I love that one lol. I can't remember where it is though sadly. Also. It's super funny to me that Sokal forgets to cite his claim for "combining psychology with tensors" or whatever! He literally doesn't mention where it's from. Apparently a random article translated. No idea but i can only guess he's referring to the tensors in schizoanalytic Cartograohies. Sadly I am not experienced enough for that wild ride yet but i do poke around in it every so often... Just why though I was so upset I missed out on a rare article... You can't get too mad at most of the empirical science types honestly (screw Dawkins and his group though). Many are like this bc they are not really sure how to deal with umcertainty and latch onto a study that grounds their ontology in reality. But of course, it's dogma and they lash that out on their politics and treatment of minorities. They act as if it's completely separate but that's simply not the case

[@yilguy]

Yeah man great comment. You cant be much more precice on this issue

[@T.R.A.I.N.I.N.G.]

modern scientists are the real post-truth

[@kylerodd2342]

This is why I enjoy Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition and Logic of Sense. He delves into empiricism very deeply and gives it a power that avoids the pit falls of the the “Truth” telos.

[@TAXXPAYERMONEY]

great video

[@DiamorphineDeath]

Curious, what are your critiques of szasz? In a lot of old libertarian circles he was always pushed and well respected, and by thinkers I always respected as well. Yours is the first “cringe” post associated with it I’ve seen, and by that I mean the first dissenting one anyway; just curious as to why as I’ve only heard one side. Appreciate the video dude!

[@PunishedFelix]

imho he kinda comes off like he alienates the struggle of mental illness for is political interactions. Meaning that while there is a hugely political and struggle of power with mental illness, there is a physical element to that struggle that was often ignored because of our conception of it at the time. For this reason imho he feels dated in modern disability contexts. It's like trying to understand the politics of diabetes without recognizing the physical machine of diabetes that created it as a political subject. That's just my opinion though on what I've been exposed to

[@Graeberwave]

@@PunishedFelixI think he responds to that in “Szasz Responds To His Critics,” a collection of letters responding to nearly anyone who misread his books. He is more relevant than ever.

[@madeline1376]

You gotta tell us where all the clips are from!

[@PunishedFelix]

I wanna be careful about clips because I saw the la Borde movie taken down, but this is from "La Borde - le droit à la folie"

[@bobsonny]

you still gotta clarify. You didn't make the clips, so give attribution clearly.

[@sadiyashiraj]

Hi @PunishedFelix , I just want to say a bit thank you for making this video. As a brown trans Muslim woman I find the people attacking you and Guattari for being too white or pretentious or elitist and justifying their positions under the guise of advocating for marginalised people extremely condescending. Yes, Guattari is difficult to understand, but not if you did the work of engaging with the traditions in which they happen to be coming from, and anyone who resonates with Guattari’s ideas and values will be willing to do the work. Videos like this one actually make it so much easier for people like me who may be able to readily access the actual texts but aren’t as clued in on the academic and historical contexts in which these conversations are happening. Much love ❤

[@PunishedFelix]

I'm so silly I misunderstood the message. Thanks, I really appreciate it. I think making ideas more accessible is really important. I kinda over reacted in that thread but eh it was months ago

[@gavinyoung-philosophy]

I resonate with this comment for sure. People about pretentious when they just aren’t willing to do the work to learn something new (oftentimes).

[@DropkickSuplex]

What music are you using?

[@PunishedFelix]

Pokemon XD\Colesseum music

[@quebecnihilismfront999]

I love Dawkins but the irony here imo is that his extended phenotype, the meme, is a very post-modern concept. I understand it as Jung's collective unconscious through D&G

[@kappaprimus]

Gotta love the Nintendo bg music

[@mates.2994]

Why do you consider Szasz cringe? I have not read his work, but I tought he was considered an important figure of anti-psychiatry. Also, have you heard of Gábor Máté? What's your take on him if you did? Thanks for your answers

[@PunishedFelix]

I kinda think Szasz didnt age well, he neglects the disabled side of mental illness imho. Which to be fair is a problem for a lot of early psychiatry. Like there is a politics of being unable to function that I dont think he captures. Never heard of Máté, I'll have to check them out

[@mates.2994]

@@PunishedFelix He is fairly mainstream, so definitely not as radical, but he ofren criticizes mainstream psychiatrical practice and always tries to situate mental health problems socially. His new books Myth of the Normal is really great imho

[@dapperninji646]

I hate that the stock B-role is upsetting me. Glad I have somewhere to go after Ecrits.

[@oneiriccathedral1548]

Not particularly a fan of Guattari, but great video!

[@yurisanson]

17 minutos que vc poderia resumir: não, não era um charlatão. Só talvez seja difícil de ler pq eu não sei francês.

[@bce6936]

90% das críticas americanas ae

[@tcmackgeorges12]

Ohhhhh guattari cited Sartre!?

[@PunishedFelix]

He LOVED Sartre! It was his first major philosophy favorite. And he pretty much loved him up until he died, even if he moved past his ideas.

[@koreanjaefish]

Huge fan of Pokémon XD gale of darkness music

[@PunishedFelix]

😃

[@billthompson7072]

Brilliant but you need to revisit and repurpose McLuhan my friend 😊 as to the universities and research especially emeritus professors 😂

[@nevernevernow]

McLuhan is great! Laid the groundwork for a lot of cybernetics stuff and doesn't get enough credit for that imo

[@mikhailschipani2018]

Dawnins talking bout himself I see?

[@zuz-ve4ro]

he got owned by my boy Gould and cried ever after fr

[@raynethecat3027]

I stan' Guattari!

[@hozting]

The fact that he was a leader doesn’t mean he was an imposter?

[@PunishedFelix]

I think the effectiveness of the facility he ran for almost 50 years speaks that he is not an imposter Imposter implies that he's trying to fraud people. I don't think someone in his position is a fraud. That doesn't mean he's right about everything but hardly is Dawkins or Sokal!

[@eliechemali4026]

...

[@Llluuuu130]

Bro u r butchering his name tho !

[@PunishedFelix]

Cant help it I'm big dummy

[@growskull]

its goo-tar-ee right?

[@antoninstefka]

Dawkins is out of it

[@davidmiller4078]

If hes French then yes highly likely

[@evgeny9965]

Enchantment is that what the French school in reality offers us?

[@bce6936]

Guattari sus impostor amogus

[@PunishedFelix]

"Translate to English" Edit: WHY DOES IT WORK WHAT THE HECK

[@bce6936]

@@PunishedFelix im not speaking english im speaking facts 💯

[@davidzubiria3783]

You missed the point entirely.

[@kehana2908]

i think the elaborated on the "point" in another video. the whole sokal affair is half true nowadays because of how academia works. however, the more qualified critical theorists and postmodernist flavored theorists seem to have a healthy dose of clarity when possible. the problem lies more with comp lit people writing philosophy papers and discussing the epistemology of the black body politic and an ontological means of resistance against hegemonic state capitalism or whatever. dawkins and all these other sciency types also have all sorts of unnecessary complications in their work. the "ultimate boeing 747 gambit", for example, is the most basic and simple argument but then dawkins decided to talk about magic ultimate planes or whatever (and add all sorts of very, very non-scholarly and loaded language EVERYWHERE. he writes about it in a very dismissive way). it's literally just "ok so if humans are really complicated and it's unlikely that they were formed randomly, then we can say a god exists. how was god created then? it's a lot more likely for humans to be created randomly than for a god" but dawkins takes like three pages to make this lame ass argument.

[@ian_silent]

>Guachari

[@PunishedFelix]

guacamole

[@veritasetcaritas]

As an anarchist I'm finding your videos are extremely effective at completely turning me off these philosophers. I doubt your intent is to present them as Eurocentric, elitist, and privileged, but that's how they're coming across.

[@PunishedFelix]

I don't really go into this in the video but Guattari actually spent extensive time supporting international minority political movements in Brazil and other countries. In Brazil he worked with local Psychoanalysist Suely Rolnik to explore minority perspectives and political laboratories through Brazil. Dude literally interviews Lula at one point lol. Also I am pretty certain there are parts of "Molecular Revolution in Brazil" involved in Brazilian indigenous politics but I'm not certain on the top of my head... He was also involved in other stuff in Africa, Japan and other places. Like I can't speak for other French theorists but Guattari actually did a LOT to support international anarchists and minority leftist movements. Like yeah he's a white guy but I think that's pretty cool tbh. Have you checked out Franz Fanon? He offers an anti-colonialist perspective on Institutional Psychotherapy. He was involved in developing stuff in Algeria before being kicked out of the country. I haven't gotten into him yet but he's on my reading/writing list for the channel. He is most certainly NOT "eurocentric" lmao. My videos were written largely to address white atheist bros who are lying about "postmodernists" to push anti minority attitudes and they were made during a psychosis, so I admit that in the current state my channel could be more anticolonialist focused. I think you should definitely at least check out the discussion before just assuming it's just a bunch of white people stuff though.

[@veritasetcaritas]

@@PunishedFelix being a leftist and supporting minority movements doesn't mean someone is automatically not Eurocentric. Eurocentrism is a common charge leveled at leftists by aboriginal and indigenous people to whom they have come to help. I am not criticizing people like Guattari for not helping marginalized people, and I don't think this video of yours needed to focus on his decolonial work in order to fulfill its purpose. I don't know how familiar you are with criticism of scholars such as Guattari and Delueze, but there's plenty out there from feminists, post-colonialists, and other scholars, who have critiqued them for Eurocentrism and Orientalism. Are you aware for example that Guattari and Delueze claim philosophy started in Greece? But my own point about Eurocentrism is that scholars such as Guattari and Delueze are embedded completely in the European intellectual tradition. Even more, one specific discipline within the European intellectual tradition, and even more, one highly specialized niche within that discipline. For instanced, Guattari's approach to schizophrenia is his own form of psychoanalysis, a discipline which itself emerged from and is not only embedded in the European intellectual tradition but also relies on a significant number of priors which are the product of European thought. Guatarri's approach is built on the work of European scholars such as Freud and Marx, and uses European frames of reference and traditional European scientific understandings of the mind, body, and the relationship of the two. He never seems to consider, for example, that schizophrenia may be have a supernatural cause such as gods, demons, spirits, as thousands of people throughout history have believed. This is completely understandable given the fact that he is operating entirely within a European thought paradigm, but it does need to be recognized. Reading and understanding scholars like Deleuze and Guattari requires a familiarity with a formidable body of prior European intellectual work. If I were to present a chapter of Guattari to one of my aboriginal friends, they wouldn't have a hope of getting through it, even if it was in their own language. And translating it into their own language would be extremely difficult given how idiosyncratic the language is. This is not literature for the masses, it's literature for elites.

[@PunishedFelix]

Are you seriously arguing that your aboriginal friends wouldn't "get it" in your lecture to me about why it's colonialist to be interested in Guattari lol. You seem to have pretty low opinions of the intelligence of your aboriginal friends lol. I'm pretty sure most people who can read English or French can comprehend works like The Three Ecologies. You don't need a background in psychoanalysis to understand that. Like honestly how do you not see such an ambitious translation not as a cool project that could bring awareness to indigenous languages in Guatt circles but some petty tactic to own some guy on an internet argument? Smh. Think about the kind of crazy stuff you could get with Three Ecologies for example crossed over with indigenous stuff. Or maybe, if the translation is too difficult, it could exist in pieces. It's fascinating to think what it could be. It is inherently colonialist to translate such a work into indigenous languages, so there is that. But if they don't care that's ok. Most people don't really care. I think you should actually READ solo Guattari first... I'm already aware of their questionable anthropology, this is largely attributed to Deleuze. Most critiques of DG are addressing their work together. Also, a lot of those critiques you bring up fail to understand many nuanced details of their work because of this negligence of Guattari's perspective. This is a huge problem for example in disabled DG analysis and critique who often fail to connect how capitalism and schizophrenia are related in their model and the consequences of that. There are legitimate feminist critiques of DG but they are *critiques*, not an outright debunking - DG has also contributed significantly to feminist and trans literature as well. He's not perfect and I'm not gonna argue that DG aren't white dudes but you're not impressing anyone you know. You just come off like you have never engaged with Guattari's solo material. Especially his political work. And completely ignoring Fanon? Lol, you're not being serious in your critique 😂 your argument just comes off as anti-intellectual. Nobody is arguing that a white dude from France knows everything, especially not about minority politics. But he is quite literally promoting a methodology that is about creating collective perspective producing machines together to expand ourselves and grow as people. Why are you mad about a dude who literally tried to use his privilege to help some of the most vulnerable people on earth. Cuz Deleuze said philosophy started in Greece? Lol

[@PunishedFelix]

Also can I just point out as someone who literally started a channel about Félix Guattari because of delusions in a month'ss-long hallucinatory psychotic episode - your conception of mental illness is incredibly simplistic and reflects a pretty white conception of alternatives to mental illness in other cultures. You should probably be aware...

[@pelodelperro]

​@@veritasetcaritasThis almost all true, and that's why I love D&G. Everybody writes out of their tradition and history. I'm not European and I find their work throughly enjoyable and quite enlightening. I think you should stop downplaying the abilities of your non European friends.

[@vadiandoangola5521]

Well, looks like a proto pseudo intellectual tried hard to frame a intellectual imposter. I lost 8 min of my precious life listening unstoppable verborrea. lucky I have some Ice Cream left to sooth this! Let's go back to books and stop these mini me clips

[@PunishedFelix]

You should read Intersecting Lives by François Dosse or Disalienation by Camille Robcis if you can't stand my narration 😭

[@qaffqa]

I won't view this video but I have already pushed the dislike button. Now I will go back to youtube homepage where this was recommended to me and do so as I won't get this channel recommended no more.

[@floraglia]

Commenting is counterintuitive.

[@phpn99]

Deleuze and Guattari, like Foucault, Lacan, Barthes, Derrida and Lyotard, were all wankers and academic posers. You have to read them in the original French text, to see how vain, obfuscating and pedantic they could get. Not a single French philosopher during the 20th century has accomplished anything other than express their admiration for Spinoza, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, Husserl and Heidegger and try to paraphrase their idols. There are notable exceptions, but they were to be found in Anthropology, Mathematics, and sometimes in Sociology.

[@PunishedFelix]

I'm starting to learning French and honestly I find Guattari even more charming in the original language 😃 can't speak for the others, I'd have to check them out on my own. I actually think solo Guattari is under explored and has huge potential. You have to really understand his radical psychiatry to understand he's doing something totally different than the rest of those guys. Check out where he worked, La Borde. It's a radical mental hospital. His work and the work of others like Oury, Deligny amd the guy who founded it (can't remember his name) is just plain inspiring from a disabled perspective. They literally formed in resistance to eugenics campaigns in occupied France in the 1940s!! Guattari studies. Its a super exciting relatively new field. For example I'm interested in how schizoanalysis can be applied to analyzing user interface in a sociopolitical context. I would argue that's incredibly relevant in an era dominated by screens mass produced under capitalism! Some parts of DG are sketch like their anthropology but honestly I don't think what I've read of solo Guattari has that problem, he tends to stay in his lane surprisingly when you're aware of his extensive background in certain fields. And for the time of publication he is very sharp.

[@georgepanicker61916]

​@@PunishedFelix hi , i would really love to know how schizoanalysis can be applied to design. Would appreciate leads!

[@PunishedFelix]

​@@georgepanicker61916it's still very early in development, but recall that schizoanalysis is a theory of subjectivity production. UIs create subjectivity through a screen and user interactions. It's like a movie but even more intensely subjectifying Anyways, the four "quadrants" of schizo analysis map very closely to actual/virtual aspects of software development: - machinic phyla is the physical interface as it exists as one thing - flows are the ways that desire can go through the system, physically representing different possibilities in the field of the actual - (a little dodgy on this, I might be mixing up universes with constellations) universes represent virtual states of the software while constellations represent possible projected futures of the software state So let's take a pokemon competitive metagame. The phyla is the code as a program, the flows are possible code paths, the universes are the states of the metagame and the constellations represent possibilities of projected futures of that metagame. Im still ironing things out though as I slowly deep dive through SC

[@PunishedFelix]

You can use the software design model to apply schizo analysis to other fields more practically.

[@jguitar23]

They often wrote very interesting, charming & courageous stuff.🎉