Der organlose Körper – Hineingehen in den glatten Raum und Spekulationen über die Leere

Abstract

The Body without Organs: Heading into the Smooth Space and Speculations about the Void

For Deleuze and Guattari, the body without organs (BwO) refers to a psychological and physical state of intensity. The BwO can also be understood as a critique of social modes of subjectification and as a practice of desubjectification. However, a unified definition of the BwO cannot be identified in the works of Deleuze and Guattari. Therefore, this article explores the questions of how the BwO can be created or how it can be entered, how practices of desubjectivation take place. This search for traces leads into areas of perception of the void, the endless and the formless. Likewise, bodily practices of desubjectification are described. The path that is traced in this search for traces does not have the goal of developing an ontology of the BwO, but is rather oriented towards the rhizomatic working method of Deleuze and Guattari: An assemblage will be developed that adds further layers to the concept of the BwO. In this respect, in addition to the phenomenological approaches in the thought of Deleuze and Guattari, this article also deals with a hermeneutic interpretation of the concept of BwO.

Keywords: Deleuze/Guattari, body without organs, smooth space, void, wandering, breathwork, mountaineering