PKC-DG01 — Foundations of Deleuze and Guattari

Foundations of Deleuze and Guattari

Course code: PKC-DG01   |   School: School of Philosophy, Knowledge and Civilization   |   Cluster: Deleuze–Guattari Studies   |   Level: 300 (Intermediate)

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari produced one of the twentieth century’s most ambitious philosophical collaborations. Their work crosses metaphysics, psychoanalysis, politics, art, anthropology, institutional psychotherapy, linguistics, and the study of capitalism. Terms such as difference, becoming, desire, rhizome, assemblage, deterritorialization, and immanence now circulate widely, but they are frequently detached from their arguments and reduced to fashionable metaphors. This course provides a disciplined foundation for reading and applying their work.

The course begins from the distinct trajectories of its two thinkers. Deleuze developed a philosophy of difference through intensive engagements with Spinoza, Hume, Nietzsche, Bergson, Kant, and others. Guattari worked as an analyst and political militant, especially within the experimental institutional environment of La Borde clinic. Their encounter generated a collaborative method that refused the division between abstract philosophy and concrete institutional life.

Across eight modules, learners examine the postwar French context, critique of representation, duration and becoming, transversality, institutional experimentation, desiring-production, schizoanalysis, rhizomes, assemblages, territorial processes, capitalism, subjectivity, and philosophy as concept-creation. The course neither canonises the authors nor treats complexity as a mark of authority. Students learn to reconstruct arguments carefully, compare concepts, identify limitations, and test whether an application is intellectually and ethically defensible.

Who This Course Is For

PKC-DG01 is designed for university learners, researchers, educators, artists, mental-health and social practitioners, policy thinkers, and independent readers seeking a reliable introduction. It is particularly relevant to philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, political theory, anthropology, media studies, education, and institutional analysis. No prior expertise is required, although learners should be prepared for close conceptual reading and sustained reflection.

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the distinct intellectual and institutional trajectories of Deleuze and Guattari.
• Distinguish difference from opposition and identity within a critique of representation.
• Relate duration, becoming, multiplicity, and immanence without collapsing them into slogans.
• Describe Guattari’s institutional practice, transversality, group subjectivity, and critique of reductionist psychoanalysis.
• Explain desiring-production and distinguish it from desire understood only as lack.
• Analyse rhizomes, assemblages, strata, territories, and lines of flight in concrete cases.
• Evaluate how capitalism produces, mobilises, and captures subjectivity.
• Create and defend an original conceptual map linking philosophical concepts to an empirical problem.

Course Structure

Module 1 — Two Lives, One Resistance

The course opens with biography as intellectual context rather than personal mythology. Learners examine Deleuze’s philosophical formation, Guattari’s clinical and militant practice, postwar French institutions, 1968, and their shared resistance to reductionism. The module establishes how collaboration brought philosophy, politics, and institutional experimentation into one field.

Module 2 — Deleuze Beyond Representation

This module introduces the critique of representation: the tendency to subordinate difference to identity, resemblance, opposition, and analogy. Learners engage difference, repetition, duration, becoming, and immanence through guided examples. The goal is to understand the problems the concepts address before applying their vocabulary elsewhere.

Module 3 — Guattari: Clinic, Desire, and Transversality

Guattari’s practice at La Borde challenged rigid separations among doctor, patient, institution, and social environment. Learners examine institutional psychotherapy, transversality, group subjectivity, and the production of subjectivity. The module emphasises that care institutions are not neutral containers; their routines, spaces, hierarchies, and signs shape therapeutic possibilities.

Module 4 — The Encounter and Collaborative Method

Deleuze and Guattari did not simply combine two finished theories. Their collaboration created a writing and thinking machine in which concepts were revised through encounters among philosophy, clinical practice, politics, science, and art. Learners analyse how interdisciplinary work can preserve conceptual rigour without reducing one field to another.

Module 5 — Anti-Oedipus and Desiring-Production

This module introduces the critique of desire as lack and the reduction of social life to a familial model. Desire is approached as productive and social. Learners study desiring-machines, social production, antiproduction, coding, decoding, and capitalist capture while also considering debates about clinical language, universality, and historical specificity.

Module 6 — Rhizomes, Assemblages, and A Thousand Plateaus

Learners explore non-hierarchical connection, multiplicity, assemblage, strata, territories, smooth and striated space, and abstract machines. A rhizome is not merely a network diagram, and an assemblage is not a loose collection of elements. The module develops precise relational analysis through a concrete institutional or cultural case.

Module 7 — Capitalism, Subjectivity, and Lines of Flight

Capitalism does not only allocate resources; it mobilises creativity, anxiety, identity, and desire. Learners examine subjectification, control, deterritorialization, reterritorialization, and lines of flight. Possibility is treated critically: escape can enable transformation but can also be captured, commodified, or become destructive.

Module 8 — Philosophy as Concept-Creation

The capstone focuses on philosophy as the creation of concepts in response to problems. Learners distinguish concepts from opinions, definitions, and communication slogans. Each learner creates a conceptual map and applied philosophical dossier that states the problem, establishes sources, relates concepts carefully, tests them against a case, and identifies limits.

Learning Method and AI Laboratory Prototypes

Each module produces a portfolio artefact: intellectual-context map, representation audit, transversality diagnostic, collaboration protocol, desiring-production map, assemblage cartography, line-of-flight risk review, or final conceptual architecture. These prototypes turn reading into disciplined inquiry. Where KBA13 AI Laboratory workflows are enabled, access should be restricted to enrolled learners.

AI may assist with comparison, questioning, glossary organisation, and counterargument generation. It must not be trusted to quote or cite philosophical texts without verification. Learners must consult reliable editions and scholarship, protect confidential information, label generated interpretations, and disclose material AI assistance. AI is not a substitute for close reading.

Assessment

• Concept glossary and reading notes — 20%: accuracy, textual grounding, and clarity.
• Prototype portfolio — 30%: eight progressive applications with explicit reasoning and revision.
• Comparative critical reflection — 20%: argument, interpretation, evidence, and engagement with objections.
• Final conceptual map and dossier — 30%: integration, originality, case relevance, limitations, and communication.

High-quality work distinguishes primary texts, scholarly interpretation, and the learner’s own application. Concepts must be defined in relation to the problems they address. Unsupported claims, fabricated quotations, and decorative use of terminology do not meet the completion standard.

Capstone Deliverable

The final dossier contains a problem statement, intellectual context, primary and secondary source record, concept genealogy, relational map, empirical or artistic case, alternative interpretation, ethical implications, limitations, and original conceptual proposal. It should be intelligible to a serious reader who has not attended the course while remaining accurate enough to withstand specialist criticism.

Certificate and Completion

A Tutor LMS Pro certificate is awarded after the required sessions and assessed artefacts are completed. Where Gradebook is enabled, results should reflect demonstrated conceptual understanding and the quality of the portfolio, not mere page viewing. The certificate recognises non-degree continuing education and does not represent a professional licence or university degree.

KBA13 Academy principle: Philosophy reaches its highest educational value when conceptual precision enlarges the learner’s capacity to perceive relations, question inherited assumptions, and create responsible possibilities.