spacesof[aesthetic]experimentation

Guattari, F. (2008) The Three Ecologies. London: Continuum

Although Genesko (2002: 1) argues that “…Guattari remains unknown, unless it is through his problematic subsumption as partner of Gilles Deleuze”, his work has undergone a recent revival of sorts. There has been a conference discussing Guattari’s ideas¹, a special issue (called ‘l’effet-guattari’) of the French journal Multitudes which was the partial result of that conference² and there have been books written by Franco Berradi (2008) and Gary Genesko (2009), as well as a new version of the collection of texts and interviews called Chaosophy (2008). Taking this renaissance as a point of departure, this review is primarily of one of the translated texts written by Guattari. The Three Ecologies (TE) was finished in 1989, only appearing in English a decade or so afterwards³. Now, twenty years on, this particular edition includes not only Guattari’s short essay but a comprehensive introduction and a marvellous chapter on his life and work, through his own concept of transversality.

The TE is a deceptively short essay, only 32 pages long, sandwiched between the introduction and an article by Genesko. Guattari seeks to extend the definition of ecology to encompass social relations and human subjectivity as well as environmental concerns and argues that a new ecosophical approach must be found. As much a manifesto for a new way of thinking as a critique of capitalism (or IWC, more on this later), Guattari presents a view of our Earth “on the brink of ecocide” (TE: 2). This ecosophical approach, broadening our views to include the three ecologies, is the only way we will be able to affect any enduring changes in our environment. The three ecologies of the title – natural ecology, the social ecologies of relations and cultures, and the mental ecology of individual subjectivity – are the focus of the essay, in which he discusses the problems of neoliberal capital as a combination of mental dulling, social homogenisation and conformity, and ecological destruction and crisis. There is a need, he argues, to recover intensities through a process of developing heterogeneity and dissensus (see TE: 9), though at the same time constructing a unified social movement against neoliberalism. People need to reclaim their subjectivities and build existential territories of their own.

Guattari’s target of condemnation is what he calls ‘Integrated World Capitalism’ (IWC) – akin to globalisation (see Jones, 2002) – that, through a series of techno-scientific transformations, has brought us to the brink of ecological disaster, causing a so-called disequilibrium of the world natural environment from which the Earth will take many generations to recover, if at all. IWC is “delocalized and deterritorialized to such an extent that it is impossible to locate its sources of power” (TE: 6). Part of Guattari’s thesis is that the expansion in communications technology, and, in particular, the development of world telecommunications, has served to shape a new type of passive subjectivity, saturating the unconscious in conformity with global market forces. IWC therefore poses a direct threat to the environment in ways that are now all too familiar to us: pollution of all forms, extinction and depletion of species with the consequent reduction of biodiversity. As we find ourselves in this nightmarish historical period, Guattari contends that the traditional means of political mobilization and resistance are not merely inappropriate; they are becoming impossible. In their place, we must address and connect our threatened ecologies through a “logic of intensities” whose articulative principle is not rational and scientific but “ethico-aesthetic” (see TE: 45).

There are a few points of conflict, however. It is rather surprising that Guattari speaks of a global environmental crisis; this is the sort of meta-narrative which post-structuralism normally takes issue with (Jones, 2002: 357). Perhaps more problematic is the manner in which Guattari writes of technology. Whilst his psychological and social perspectives remain as radical as ever, Guattari tends to naturalise such phenomena as technological development and population growth. This does not sit comfortably with the radicality of his critique of other taken-for-granted phenomena.

Gary Genesko’s essay ‘The Life and Work of Félix Guattari: From Transversality to Ecosophy’⁴ is excellent, providing a study of Guattari’s scholastic career through his shifting sense of ‘transversality’. Genesko has a long-standing interest (see also: Genesko, 1996; 2002; 2009) and here he provides a wide-ranging, and engagingly written, introduction to Guattari’s work. By examining Guattari’s influences – from Sartre to Freud and Lacan – Genosko situates him in the field of psychoanalytic theory, usefully revitalizing many of Lacan’s and Freud’s ideas by coupling them with Sartre’s existential sociology. “[N]ature cannot be separated from culture” (TE: 29); indeed, Guattari conceives of ecology as a realm encompassing the environmental, the social and the mental. His ecosophical perspective of subjectivity, in large part, is a product of his Lacanian training, his experience as a working psychoanalyst and his attempt to reorient Freudianism towards the future (see TE: 156). Guattari understands subjectivity according to his concept of ‘transversality’, a concept that dates from the mid-1960s and which Guattari developed over his lifetime. This transversalist conception of subjectivity “escapes the individual-social distinction as well as the givenness or preformedness of the subject either as a person or individual; subjectivity is both collective and auto-producing” (TE: 145-146).

Wolf-Meyer (2003) argues that the translators/editors’ notes do not connect Guattari with the larger world of contemporary theory and aesthetics – that they only entrench him further in the insular world of Deleuze and Guattari’s scholarship – but this reader would argue that the notes are always a pleasure to follow-up. There is a great deal of detail and many points of interest, as well as suggestions for further readings (see TE: 79-106). Highlights include the translation of the French word ritournelle (TE: 87n.25), a discussion of Guattari’s reading of Sartre (TE: 84n.10) and his reference to one of Kafka’s characters (TE: 90n.32).

This book is a useful introduction and outline of Félix Guattari’s ideas. The translators/editors, Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton provide an opening which helps to situate the TE within a broader field, both of Guattari’s work and also ecological struggle. Like much of Guattari’s earlier work, without Deleuze, this work has overt political importance. Although the language deployed can at times be rather obscure, his terms ‘ecosophy’ and ‘transversality’ are full of potential. On to Chaosmosis⁵ next…

Berradi, F. (2008) Félix Guattari: Thought, Friendship, and Visionary Cartography. London: Palgrave

Genesko, G. (1996) Guattari Reader. Oxford : Blackwells

Genesko, G. (2002) Félix Guattari: An Abberrant Introduction. London: Continuum

Genesko, G. (2009) Felix Guattari: A Critical Introduction. London: Pluto Press

Guattari, F. (1995[1992]) Chaosmosis. Sydney: Power Publications

Guattari, F. (2008) Chaosophy: Texts and Interviews 1972-1977. New York: Semiotext(e)

Jones, O. (2002) The three ecologies: Félix Guattari [Book Review]. Journal of Rural Studies, 18(3): 357-358

Wolf-Meyer (2003) Guattari, Felix: The Three Ecologies (2000) [Review]. Reconstruction, 3(1)

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This post is tagged ecosophy, guattari, transversality