Mr. Omri Blum

The research analyzes the affinities between Freudian psychoanalysis and the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze. It seeks to shed light on various dimensions emerging from the encounter between Deleuze and Freud, rethinking Freudian concepts through a Deleuzian lens, while subjecting aspects of Deleuzian thought to critical examination. Specifically, the research complicates the classical psychoanalytic “economic” view; it shows that Freudian desire is not exhausted by a negative logic of law or lack, and identifies within Freud's thought a dimension in which desire operates as a primary and productive force, immanent to the very field in which it unfolds. This undermines conventional readings of Freud that regard the Oedipal-Genital schema as the organizing principle of sexuality. The dissertation's distinctive contribution lies in exposing a latent conceptual apparatus already at work within Freud's own texts, and in turning, on this basis, to re-examine some of the core premises of Deleuze's critique of Freud.

The doctoral research laid the groundwork for a thought of multiplicity drawing on both Deleuzian and Freudian thinking. A key intersection at play was the effort common to both thinkers to carve out conceptual paths toward the phenomenality of the body. Engagement with problems concerning the body and its modes of organization raised socio-political questions. Specifically, the question of how the drive itself becomes an arena in which an external authority is inscribed—as manifested in the mechanism of the superego—exceeded the scope of the dissertation. The current research seeks to deploy the framework of multiplicity developed in the dissertation to address the contemporary crisis of sovereignty as it manifests in the rise of populist and authoritarian trends. The point of departure will be the theoretical line traced by various thinkers who see the superego—the psychic counterpart of political sovereignty—as a productive conceptual tool for examining socio-political phenomena. The hypothesis guiding this research is that a shift away from an Oedipal model that situates desire within the conceptual framework of law and lack as delineated by the superego, toward a Deleuzian conception that, following Spinoza, regards desire as a primary and positive force, constitutes a fruitful path for reconceptualizing sovereignty at both the psychic and political levels.