You’re absolutely right—transversality and cartography are central to Félix Guattari’s thought, and they are crucial for understanding his contributions to psychoanalysis, social theory, and politics. Let me expand on these key concepts:
1. Transversality
• Definition: Transversality is a concept Guattari developed to describe a mode of connection that cuts across hierarchical and rigid structures, fostering creativity, dialogue, and collaboration.
• Origins: Developed in his work at the La Borde Clinic, where he sought to overcome the traditional hierarchies between therapists, patients, and staff in psychiatric institutions.
Core Ideas:
• Non-Hierarchical Communication: Transversality promotes open, horizontal interactions rather than top-down or siloed relationships.
• Breaking Boundaries: It traverses different domains—such as individual and collective, personal and political, mental and social—emphasizing their interconnectedness.
• Therapeutic Context: In psychotherapy, transversality allows for collaborative relationships between therapist and patient, as well as among patients themselves, breaking the authoritarian model of care.
• Social and Political Relevance: Transversality is also a principle of collective organization and social movements. It supports alliances across different groups, such as workers, activists, and marginalized communities.
Example:
At La Borde Clinic, Guattari introduced practices that encouraged patients to participate in decision-making processes, fostering a transversal dynamic that blurred the lines between staff and patients, empowering all participants.
2. Cartography
• Definition: Guattari uses the concept of cartography to describe how subjective experiences and social realities can be mapped as dynamic and interconnected processes rather than static structures.
• Purpose: Unlike traditional maps, Guattari’s cartography is about mapping processes of becoming, desire, and subjectivity, emphasizing their fluid and non-linear nature.
Core Ideas:
• Mapping Desire and Subjectivity: Cartography involves tracing how desires, emotions, and thoughts flow within individuals and assemblages, capturing their dynamic and changing nature.
• Non-Hierarchical Representation: It avoids fixed or universal categories, focusing instead on the multiplicity of connections and transformations.
• Opposition to Structuralism: Cartography contrasts with structuralist models that emphasize rigid, predefined frameworks. For Guattari, subjectivity is always in motion, requiring a map that evolves with it.
• Guiding Praxis: Cartography is a tool for understanding how social, environmental, and psychological forces interact, helping to design interventions that foster new forms of subjectivity and collective organization.
Cartography and Schizoanalysis:
• Guattari’s schizoanalytic cartographies are a way to map the complex interplay of unconscious drives, societal structures, and environmental factors.
• These maps include multiple axes and dimensions, such as:
• Flows of desire (productive forces in life).
• Social assemblages (institutions, norms).
• Semiotic regimes (languages, signs).
• Ecological dynamics (relationships between humans and their environments).
Example:
In Schizoanalytic Cartographies (1989), Guattari outlines a framework for understanding how subjective and collective transformations can be mapped, helping to identify blockages or points of liberation.
Interrelation of Transversality and Cartography
• Transversality and cartography are deeply interconnected:
• Transversality is the principle that enables connections between different dimensions of an assemblage.
• Cartography is the method for tracing and understanding these connections, making visible the flows and relationships that transversality fosters.
For example:
• In a social movement, transversality connects activists, artists, and communities, while cartography maps their shared goals, interactions, and points of conflict.
Importance in Guattari’s Work
• Transversality embodies Guattari’s commitment to breaking down hierarchies and fostering creativity.
• Cartography reflects his methodological approach to understanding complex systems of subjectivity, desire, and social organization.
Together, they form the basis of his vision for a more flexible, collaborative, and dynamic approach to therapy, politics, and life itself.
