Deleuze's Literary Clinic: Criticism and the Politics of Symptoms

Deleuze's Literary Clinic looks at Deleuze's view of writing as a practice tied to health, and at what that view means across his work. Aidan Tynan argues that concerns with health and illness run through Deleuze's philosophy, from his early writings to his collaborations with Guattari and his later reflections on life.

Tynan explains why alcoholism, anorexia, manic depression and schizophrenia matter to Deleuze's literary theory. He traces how the turn to schizoanalysis gave literature a political and ethical part to play in diagnosing the pathologies of the present and in describing a healthier future.

The book is a specialist study aimed at readers of Deleuze and Guattari, critical theory and literary studies who want a focused account of how Deleuze linked criticism with clinical thinking.