cartographies of dis-ease
schizoanalysis, maps, and becoming in the light of foucault's genealogy of the psychological subject and basaglia's democratic psychiatry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12957/childphilo.2025.94309Parole chiave:
deleuze & guattari, foucault, schizoanalysis, becoming, deterritorialization, genealogy, psychological subjectAbstract
This critical review explores the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, focusing on the concepts of schizoanalysis, cartography, deterritorialization, and becoming-child, placing them in a rigorous dialogue with the Foucauldian genealogy of the modern psychological subject and its governmental technologies. The objective is threefold: first, to illuminate the profound affinities and equally profound divergences between these two pillars of 20th-century French critical thought; second, to evaluate the heuristic power of the Deleuzo-Guattarian oeuvre as a tool for resisting the forms of subjectivation identified by Foucault; and third, to examine how the psychiatric reform led by Franco Basaglia in Italy represents an exemplary case of “praxis” that embodies, often unconsciously, the theoretical stakes of both approaches. The article argues that while Foucault provides an impeccable archaeological and genealogical diagnosis of the “steel structures” of the modern psyche, Deleuze and Guattari offer a pragmatic “toolbox” for dismantling them and creating new ones. Schizoanalysis emerges not as a therapeutic alternative to psychoanalysis but as a political practice of deconstructing dominant models of desire and subjectivity. The concepts of map, deterritorialization, and becoming-child are analyzed as concrete tools to escape the interpretive grids of depth psychology and engage in a counter-conduct of lives, resisting the governmental technologies that produce the “normal” and “pathological” subject. The analysis of Basaglia demonstrates the concrete translation of these struggles against the total institution, where the closure of the asylum equates to an absolute deterritorialization of the territory of madness. The conclusion reflects on the fertility of this theoretical-practical dialogue for contemporary humanities, especially in studies on madness, childhood, and forms of social control in contemporary capitalism.
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