Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction (Transversals: New Directions In Philosophy) [Hardcover]

Gary Genosko (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 082646033X | ISBN-13: 978-0826460332 | Publication Date: August 5, 2002

This is the first detailed assessment of the life and work of Felix Guattari--"Mr. Anti" as the French press labelled him--the friend of and collaborator with Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan and Antonio Negri, and one of the 20th Century's last great activist-intellectuals. Guattari is widely known for his celebrated writings with Deleuze, but these writings do not represent the true breadth and impact of his thinking, writing and activism. Guattari's major work as a clinical and theoretical innovator in psychoanalysis was closely linked to his participation in struggles against European right-wing politics. Felix Guattari introduces the reader to the diversity and sheer range of Guattari's interests, from anti-psychiatry, to Japanese culture, political activism and his theorizing of subjectification.Highlighting why Guattari's work is of increasing relevance to contemporary political, psychoanalytical and philosophical thought, Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction presents the reader with an adventurous and provocative introduction to this radical thinker.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The first comprehensive introduction to the thought of Felix Guattari to appear in any language, by the world's foremost expert on his work. Genosko skillfully presents the semiotic, psychiatric, and political underpinnings of Guattari's philosophy and activism. A most helpful initiation for new Guattari readers, and an indispensable companion volume for those already familiar with his writing."--Brian Massumi

'...Another hugely significant contribution to work in the field of immanent and materialist conceptions of philosophy inspired by the work of Deleuze and Guattari is Gary Genosko's Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction...Genesko's work stands alone in the world as the only detailed investigation of the life and work of the psychoanalyst-philosopher-activist available at this time in any language, including French...copious research and attention to detail that mark his book out...As a document of the life and work of Guattari, Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction is not only a scholarly achievement, but, it is also an aberrant gesture worthy of the book's title and of Guattari himself...As as addition to Continuum's Transversals series it is most welcome and, more than that, it provides a potential manifesto for future publications in this series.'

(Marcel Swiboda Immanence )

'...Another hugely significant contribution to work in the field of immanent and materialist conceptions of philosophy inspired by the work of Deleuze and Guattari is Gary Genosko's Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction...Genesko's work stands alone in the world as the only detailed investigation of the life and work of the psychoanalyst-philosopher-activist available at this time in any language, including French...copious research and attention to detail that mark his book out...As a document of the life and work of Guattari, Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction is not only a scholarly achievement, but, it is also an aberrant gesture worthy of the book's title and of Guattari himself...As as addition to Continuum's Transversals series it is most welcome and, more than that, it provides a potential manifesto for future publications in this series.'

(, Immanence )

About the Author

Gary Genosko is Professor of Sociology at Lakehead University, Canada. He is editor of The Guattari Reader, Deleuze and Guattari: Critical Assessments, and author of Baudrillard and Signs, Undisciplined Theory, and McLuhan and Baudrillard: The Masters of Implosion.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 278 pages
• Publisher: The Athlone Press (August 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082646033X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826460332
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,246,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars more than an introduction, even an aberrant one, January 19, 2003

By 

Jeremy W. Hunsinger "buridan" (blacksburg, virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction (Transversals: New Directions in Philosophy Series) (Hardcover)

I recommend this book highly primarily because it provides a sound grounding in the thought and politics of Pierre-Felix Guattari, without overwhelming his individual position with the Deleuze and Guattarian Construct. This is an important because Guattari brought significant differences to the table throughout his life, and those differences manifest themselves as a separate authorial personae than D&G.

Guattari's work as exemplified and analyzed in some detail in this book covered significant ground during his life. Everything from psychiatry to social phenomena was covered and he misses very few points in between. This book is good in relating that to a reader, providing context to Guattari's work. The one place I would ask for more is in dealing specifically with Guattari's political economic perspective. While Genesko does explain and diagram the systematic though of Guattari's psycho-social-aesthetico-political models, and the explainations of transversals, etc. are significant works in themselves, I find that without the tie to integrated world capitalism some things are lost.

However, even without that, this book manages to bring Guattari back to the fore in social theory and political theory, so buy it, read it, and find out more about one of the most interesting minds of the last century.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Guattari's theory covered, June 13, 2007

By 

E. Heroux (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction (Transversals: New Directions In Philosophy) (Paperback)

Published in a series of philosophical works titled "Transversals" that includes theorist Manuel DeLanda. Genosko has done more here for Guattari than he already did for Baudrillard, providing a very scholarly summary of Guattari's theoretical output, contrasting it with his sources and competitors, showing the shifts from early to later thought, contextualizing his work in the times. As the first major study of Guattari in English, and one done so thoroughly, including archival research, that it is a kind of benchmark for any later effort. If any single book could begin to correct the "problem of the reception of Deleuze's work as a way of erasing Guattari", then this is it.