Félix Guattari: Biography Of This French Philosopher And Psychoanalyst
Félix Guattari was a French thinker, philosopher and psychoanalyst of the 20th century, who conceived of thought as a tool of social struggle. He was a disciple of Lacan and a left-wing militant, and wrote numerous works on politics and philosophy.
In this article we will see a brief biography of Félix Guattari, and a summary of his contributions to French society of that century. His legacy still endures today.
Félix Guattari: biography of this thinker and activist
Félix Guattari was born on April 30, 1930 in Villeneuve-les-Sabons (Oise), France. He was a prominent psychoanalyst and philosopher, and a central figure of French intellectual life in the second half of the 20th century
Félix Guattari began studying pharmacy, pressured by his family, but quickly abandoned them to study philosophy. In his training journey, the two most important areas that will stand out are the factory and the psychiatric hospital.
In relation to the factory, as a young man Félix Guattari joined the union group made up of workers from Hispano-Suiza (a factory that produces luxury cars and airplane engines). The “Youth of Hispanic” organize different activities for young workers (study groups, trips to museums, volleyball games, singing courses, etc.).
Felix Guattari He then forges himself as a militant, in this youthful environment of cooperation and community life and is established as one of the most important figures of the Hostels (where one of the activities was vacations there).
From that moment on, his militant activity never stops, and he goes through different groups (Trotskyism, entryism and the left-wing opposition).
Intellectual career
As for the psychiatric hospital, Félix Guattari deviates from his studies in philosophy and It begins in Lacan’s seminar (in the early 1950s) to become a specialist in the work of the Lacanian psychoanalyst. Later, however, he distanced himself from “Lacanism” based on his collaboration with Gilles Deleuze (also a French philosopher).
His therapeutic experience goes further and at that time admitted to the La Borde psychiatric clinic (a leading center of institutional psychotherapy), located in a castle among 18 hectares of forest, and becomes the right hand of Jean Oury, founder and director of the hospital. From that moment and for the next 20 years, he settles in the castle and Félix Guattari’s life takes place and focuses on La Borde.
Félix Guattari approaches Freudian work through the thought of Jacques Lacan. After beginning his studies in psychoanalysis with Lacan himself, he ended up becoming one of the first non-medical doctors to participate in his Seminar.
Years later Guattari joined the Freudian School of Paris, created by Lacan, in which he obtained the title of Analyst Member of the School. He participated in said School until its dissolution, on January 5, 1980.
Finally, Guattari died at the age of 62, on August 29, 1992, in the La Borde clinic (also France).
His written work
One of his most notable works is Psychoanalysis and transversalityfrom 1976. It is a psychoanalytic critique of institutions It is considered a heterogeneous work, since it compiles articles written during a period of 15 years (from 55 to 70). Furthermore, it is also because the articles are very diverse both formally and thematically.
This work brings together different texts; from conferences that took place in university media, such as articles in newspapers or specialized magazines. The topics are diverse; There would be two specific areas: politics and psychoanalysis.
Other of his original works were: The molecular revolution (1977), The unconscious machine (1979), The winter années 1980-1985 (1985), Cartographies schizoanalytiques (1989), The three ecologies (1989)… All covering different topics of politics, philosophy and psychoanalysis
Philosophy
Regarding his philosophical legacy, one of Félix Guattari’s contributions is that does not believe that it is possible to isolate the unconscious in language, nor structure it. On the contrary, he considers the unconscious present in many fields, such as the social, economic and political.
Félix Guattari seeks answers to existential questions with the aim of reintegrating the complexity of individuals, their libido, dreams and inclinations in the political sphere; all of it leads him to propose the so-called “ecosophy”
Ecosophy is characterized as a current of thought that promotes the search for wisdom to inhabit the planet, in the midst of the global ecosystem crisis facing humanity.
Legacy
Félix Guattari’s intellectual work is intertwined with his political militancy. Guattari He is considered a dissident Marxist, and conceives thought as a tool of social struggle. He is active in the Voie Communiste and in different left-wing groups.
Guattari left a legacy, a very important intellectual production, greatly influenced by May ’68 (the chain of protests that took place in France and, especially, in Paris during the months of May and June 1968).
For Guattari, this movement (which he characterizes for the first time as a molecular revolution) announces the possibility of other modes of political subjectivation and microsocial struggle Subjectivation is considered the process through which we constitute ourselves as subjects and manifest our subjectivity, and was a concept widely used by Guattari.
