'Desire is a machine!'

When Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari made this bold claim in Anti-Oedipus (1972), it was intended as a provocation to the dominant intellectual frameworks of the time: psychoanalysis, Marxism, and structuralism. Rather than rejecting these traditions outright, Deleuze and Guattari sought to reengineer them—combining their insights into a new mode of thought they called 'schizoanalysis'.

In this lecture, cultural theorist Ian Buchanan will unpack the concept of schizoanalysis and the productive, machinic conception of desire at its heart. Traversing its clinical and socio-political dimensions, Buchanan will explore how Deleuze and Guattari’s radical synthesis remains relevant and resonant today.

Ian Buchanan is the founding editor of Deleuze and Guattari Studies and the author The Incomplete Project of Schizoanalysis. He has just completed a book on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of affect.

This lecture is presented as part of Desire Is a Machine. On show at the Institute of Modern Art until 20 September 2025.

Image: Angela Melitopoulos Maurizio Lazzarato 'Assemblages' 2010. Installation view 'Desire Is a Machine' Institute of Modern Art 2025. Photo: Katy Bedford

Contact the host of Lecture | Ian Buchanan: What is Schizoanalysis?