Daniel Paul Schreber as Anti-Oedipus: More lessons from the incipit

Context

The incipit of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's book Anti-Oedipus, as well as those who have commented upon this and related incipits, is the focus of this paper. This remarkable first paragraph provides the orientation for the investigation of the figure of President Daniel Paul Schreber, author of Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, and the subject of a case study by Sigmund Freud.

Objective

The goal is to show that Schreber, who is named in the incipit, is a key figure of anti-oedipal theory. He is, in fact, anti-oedipal, and anti-Freudian and anti-Lacanian, but in accordance with Deleuze and Guattari, he is also the author of a schizoanalytic masterpiece.

Method

Comparing and contrasting approaches to Schreber in the secondary literature, as well as looking closely at the text, an analysis is mounted by following one specific line of inquiry, across a variety of disciplines, into the written word and of writing. The combination of the incipit's reference to Schreber and to Georges Bataille is used to expand the inquiry toward the question of the place of pleasure and parody in writing.

Interpretation

The turn to writing, suggested in a number of secondary texts, as well as in Schreber's Memoirs, exposes the figure of Schreber as an anti-oedipal writer. Yet the status of Schreber as sovereign author, however, is called into question, and the kind of writing that affords to him a place in the incipit of Anti-Oedipus, is discovered to belong to a mode emphasizing both pleasure and parody.