Deleuze and Guattari: An introduction to the politics desire

D&G elevate desire to a transcendental level and bestow it a time- and context-free character. As such, they abandon the "rational man" assumption of the traditional view of human beings and adopt a "desiring unconscious" model to account for the behaviors of humans. To them, desire exists prior to creation, knowledge, culture, law etc. and thus it is the motor of human action and history. Yet although it has a transcendental essence, desire is not immune to power relations. To the contrary, D&G argue that power struggles take place exactly over desire, or its control. Thus, the primary aim of the philosophy of D&G becomes the liberation of desire from external pressures. Put simply, everybody should be entitled to realize his/her desire so long as it is not harmful to others. This idea of liberation of desire leads D&G to elaborate on the concept of immanence.