Machinic Point

Below are links, coupled with an abstract - if included, to all of the articles and essays contributed by others, on the relationship between “Deleuze’s transcendental empiricism and embodiment”.  Some contributions may be re-publications of works already printed; therefore presenting examinations that not only provide insight into the relationship between Deleuze’s philosophy and Embodiment, but also present the unique and particular subjects that the authors have originally intended to focus on.

All writing pertaining to the “embodied machines” project may also be found under the “embodied machines” category listed on the front page.

A brief synopsis of the project may be found here.

Contributions:

Refracting ‘health’. Deleuze, Guattari and Body/Self
By: Nick J Fox (University of Sheffield, UK)

Abstract

This paper considers ‘health’ and issues of embodiment through the prism of Deleuze and Guattari’s framework of theory. Deleuze and Guattari speak of an embodied subjectivity, a ‘body-without organs’ (BwO), which is the outcome of a dynamic tension between culture and biology. This BwO – or ‘body-self’ — is a limit, the outcome of physical, psychological and social ‘territorialization’, but which may be ‘deterritorialized’ to open up new possibilities for embodied subjectivity.

The question ‘what can a body do?’ is posed to address issues of health and illness. The physical, psychological, emotional and social relations of body-self together comprise the limit of a person’s embodied subjectivity, and as such delimit its ‘health’. ‘Illness’ is a further limiting of these relations, while health care may offer the potential to de-territorialize these relations, opening up new possibilities. This model suggests the importance of a collaborative approach to illness, health and health care.

This paper serves as a most lucid and informative introduction to some of Deleuze’s most fundamental terminologies and concepts, examined within a context of health and embodiment. Click here to read.