Unlike pop psychology, philosophy takes a long time to be adequately read, understood, and for its implications to become more fully absorbed within the world of therapy and the wider sphere of society. This is even more so when the philosophy in question is not only complex and wide-ranging, but when it challenges the very foundations of thought – if not the very notion of foundations. This is certainly the case with Giles Deleuze (1925–1995), a formidable thinker whose influence continues to be felt within an array of disciplines, including philosophy, art, literary theory, and for whom the vague term ‘post-structuralism’ only vaguely describes the breadth and depth of his philosophical adventures.
Central to the magisterial paper Deleuze and Immanence: Notes on the limits of psychotherapy’s existence by Maria Nichterlein is the often unrecognized and misinterpreted notion of immanence, a term which, if correctly absorbed, is potentially ground-breaking for the philosophically naïve world of therapy, a world which arguably relies on transcendental notions and second-hand metaphysics. Deleuze is a philosopher of immanence, and the urgency implicit in the etymology of the word reminds us to ‘remain within’ this world – not abstruse exercise but renewed commitment to engage with its beauty and sadness – particularly, as Nichterlein emphasises, in these turbulent and conservative times.
The second paper, The Body-without-Organs: a User’s Manual by Manu Bazzano, introduces us to the subversive and far-reaching idea of the Body-without-Organs, originally found in Artaud and developed further by Deleuze and Guattari. The notion is presented in relation to the more popular notions of the unconscious and the organism found in psychoanalytic and humanistic discourses. It also problematizes current, and rather pious notions, of embodiment: a body is for Deleuze more process than form. A body is bodyings, rather than an organism. It is fluid movement, a bid for freedom.
The third paper, Full On Festival of Art Therapy by Pamela Whitaker, applies key Deleuzian notions such as nomadic subjectivity and the event to the domains of art therapy and the festival. The latter helps diffuse and redefine a subjectivity that is often entrenched within the transactional, bourgeois confines of the therapy room and allowed to literally walk off course and engage with rich multiplicities.
The fourth paper, The oral Deleuze. Faciality, Power, Sexuality, Objectile and Superject by Barbetta, deals with the reversal of the idea of subject and how such a reversal is connected to the idea of power and sexuality. It invites us to reflect on the wide-ranging notions of the objectile and the superject in captivating and innovative ways, whilst opening the exploration to Deleuze’s ideas on literature and beyond.
The Fifth paper, Still Anti-Oedipus? – Reflections on Deleuze and Guattari by Andrew Seed reflects in a refreshing and direct manner on the politically subversive potential found in Deleuze as means to go beyond a self-promoting and reactive therapeutic industry that has willfully suppressed the creative and revolutionary investigations of its beginnings.
It is hoped that readers who are new to Deleuze, as well as practitioners wishing to find new applications of his thought in the field of psychotherapy and counselling, will find sources of inspiration in this special issue.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).