Henry Waxman and Félix Guattari: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox_Congressman

{{Infobox_Philosopher |

| name =Henry Waxman

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| image name = Henry Waxman, official photo portrait color.jpg

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| date of birth= [[September 12]], [[1939]]

region = Western Philosophy|

| place of birth= [[Los Angeles, California]]

era = [[20th-century philosophy]]|

| death_date =

color = #B0C4DE|

| death_place =

| state = [[California]]

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| district = [[California's 30th congressional district|30th]]

image_name = Guattari2.jpg|

| term_start = [[January 14]], [[1975]]&ndash;

| preceded = [[Xavier Becerra]]

<!-- Information -->

| succeeded = Incumbent

name = Pierre-Félix Guattari|

| party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]

birth = [[April 30]], [[1930]] ([[Villeneuve-les-Sablons]], [[Oise]], [[France]])|

| religion = [[Jewish]]

death = [[August 29]], [[1992]] ([[La Borde clinic]], [[Cour-Cheverny]], [[France]])|

| spouse = Janet Waxman

school_tradition = [[Psychoanalysis]], [[Autonomism]] |

main_interests = [[Psychoanalysis]], [[Politics]], [[Ecology]], [[Semiotics]]|

influences = [[Freud]], [[Lacan]], [[Gregory Bateson|Bateson]], [[Sartre]], [[Hjelmslev]]|

influenced = [[Eric Alliez]], [[Michael Hardt]], [[Brian Massumi]], [[Antonio Negri]] |

notable_ideas = [[assemblage]], [[desiring machine]], [[deterritorialization]], [[ecosophy]], [[schizoanalysis]]|

}}

'''Pierre-Félix Guattari''' ([[April 30]], [[1930]] – [[August 29]], [[1992]]) was a [[France|French]] [[militant]], institutional [[psychotherapist]] and [[philosopher]], a founder of both [[schizoanalysis]] and [[ecosophy]]. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with [[Gilles Deleuze]], most notably ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1972) and ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1980).

'''Henry Arnold Waxman''' (born [[September 12]], [[1939]]) is an [[Politics of the United States|American politician]]. He has represented the 30th [[congressional district]] of [[California]] ([http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/ca30_109.gif map]) in the [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]] since 1975. Waxman, a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]], is considered to be one of the most influential [[Liberalism|liberal]] members of [[United States Congress|Congress]]. He serves the famous cities of [[West Hollywood]], [[Santa Monica]] and [[Beverly Hills]], and parts of the city of [[Los Angeles]].

==Biography==

With the Democrats' victory in the [[U.S. House election, 2006|2006 midterm elections]], Waxman became chairman of the [[U.S. House Committee on Government Reform|House Government Reform Committee]], the principal investigative committee of the House. He has been this committee's ranking Democrat since [[1997]].

=== Clinic of La Borde ===

Born in Villeneuve-les-Sablons, [[Oise]], [[France]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Guattari was encouraged by psychiatrist [[Jean Oury]] towards the practice of [[psychiatry]], becoming impassioned from 1950 towards that field.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Due to his frustrations with the theories and methods of French [[psychoanalyst]] [[Jacques Lacan]] — who both taught and analysed Guattari in the 1950s – Guattari became convinced that he needed to continue exploring as vast an array of domains as possible ([[philosophy]], [[ethnology]], [[linguistics]], [[architecture]], etc.,) in order to better define the orientation, delimitation and psychiatric efficacy of the practice. Guattari would later proclaim that psychoanalysis is "the best [[capitalist]] drug" because in it desire is confined to a couch: desire, in Lacanian psychoanalysis, is an energy that is contained rather than one that, if freed, could militantly engage itself in something different. He continued this research, collaborating in Jean Oury's private clinic of [[La Borde clinic|La Borde]] at Court-Cheverny, one of the main centers of institutional psychotherapy at the time. La Borde was a venue for conversation amongst innumerable students of philosophy, psychology, ethnology, and [[social work]]. La Borde was Félix Guattari's principal anchoring until he died of a heart attack in [[1992]].

=== 1960s to 1970s ===

==Life==

From 1955 to 1965, Félix Guattari animated the [[trotskyist]] group ''Voie Communiste'' ("Communist Way"). He would then support [[anticolonialist]] struggles as well as the Italian ''[[Autonomists]]''. Guattari also took part in the movement of the psychological G.T., which gathered many psychiatrists at the beginning of the sixties and created the Association of Institutional Psychotherapy in November [[1965]]. It was at the same time that he founded, along with other militants, the F.G.E.R.I. (Federation of Groups for Institutional Study & Research) and its review research, working on philosophy, mathematics, psychoanalysis, education, architecture, ethnology, etc. The F.G.E.R.I. came to represent aspects of the multiple political and cultural engagements of Félix Guattari: the Group for Young Hispanics, the Franco-Chinese Friendships (in the times of the popular communes), the opposition activities with the wars in [[Algerian War of Independence|Algeria]] and Vietnam, the participation in the M.N.E.F., with the U.N.E.F., the policy of the offices of psychological academic aid (B.A.P.U.), the organisation of the University Working Groups (G.T.U.), but also the reorganizations of the training courses with the Centers of Training to the Methods of Education Activities (C.E.M.E.A.) for psychiatric male nurses, as well as the formation of Friendly Male Nurses (Amicales d'infirmiers) (in [[1958]]), the studies on architecture and the projects of construction of a day hospital of for "students and young workers".

Waxman was born in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]]. He attended college at [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]], earning a [[bachelor's degree]] in [[political science]] in 1961. Waxman also attended UCLA’s [[law school]], receiving his [[law degree]] in 1964. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer and member of the [[California Assembly]] before being elected to the House. In 2003, Waxman delivered the keynote address to the Political Science graduating class at UCLA in Pauley Pavilion.

Guattari was involved in the [[events of May 1968]], starting from the [[Movement of March 22]]. It was in the aftermath of 1968 that Guattari met [[Gilles Deleuze]] at the [[University of Vincennes]] and began to lay the ground-work for the soon to be infamous ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1972), which [[Michel Foucault]] described as "an introduction to the non-fascist life" in his preface to the book. Throughout his career it may be said that his writings were at all times correspondent in one fashion or another with sociopolitical and cultural engagements. In 1967, he appeared as one of the founders of OSARLA (Organization of solidarity and Aid to the Latin-American Revolution). It was with the head office of the F.G.E.R.I. that he met, in [[1968]], [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]], [[Jean-Jacques Lebel]], and [[Julian Beck]]. In [[1970]], he created C.E.R.F.I. (Center for the Study and Research of Institutional Formation), which takes the direction of the Recherches review. In 1977, he created the CINEL for "new spaces of freedom" before joining in the 1980s the [[ecological]] movement with his "[[ecosophy]]".

Before the Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 1995, Waxman was a powerful figure in the House as chair of the [[U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce|Energy and Commerce Committee]]'s Subcommittee on Health and the Environment from 1979. In this role he conducted investigations into a range of health and environmental issues, including universal health insurance, [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]] and [[Medicaid]] coverage, [[AIDS]] and air and water pollution.

=== 1980s to 1990s ===

According to his Web site, his legislative priorities are health and environmental issues. These include universal health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid coverage, tobacco, AIDS, air and water quality standards, pesticides, nursing home quality standards, women's health research and reproductive rights, the availability and cost of prescription drugs, and the right of communities to know about pollution levels.

In his last book, ''Chaosmose'' ([[1992]]), the topic of which is already partially developed in ''What is Philosophy?'' (1991, with Deleuze), Félix Guattari takes again his essential topic: the question of subjectivity. "How to produce it, collect it, enrich it, reinvent it permanently in order to make it compatible with mutant Universes of value?" This idea returns like a leitmotiv, from ''Psychanalyse and transversality'' (a regrouping of articles from [[1957]] to [[1972]]) through ''Années d'hiver'' ([[1980]] - [[1986]]) and ''Cartographies Schizoanalytique'' ([[1989]]). He insists on the function of "a-signification", which plays the role of support for a subjectivity in act, starting from four parameters: "significative and [[semiotic]] flows, Phylum of Machinic Propositions, Existential Territories and Incorporeal Universes of Reference."

==The Government Reform Committee==

Waxman had a reputation as a vigorous investigator long before becoming ranking Democrat on the Government Reform Committee. In [[1998]], he created a "Special Investigations Division" to investigate matters that he felt the full committee had neglected. This was possible because the Government Reform Committee has broad powers to investigate any matter with federal policy implications, even if another committee has jurisdiction over it. [http://web.archive.org/web/20051215014917/www.democrats.reform.house.gov/investigations.asp] He has also harshly criticized the Republicans for ignoring their "constitutional responsibility" to conduct oversight over the government. [http://web.archive.org/web/20051226041215/reform.democrats.house.gov/story.asp?id=706].

In 1995, the posthumous release ''Chaosophy'' featured Guattari's first collection of essays and interviews focuses on the French anti-psychiatrist and theorist's work as director of the experimental La Borde clinic and collaborator of philosopher Gilles Deleuze. ''Chaosophy'' is a groundbreaking introduction to Guattari's theories on "schizo-analysis", a process meant to replace [[Sigmund Freud]]'s interpretation with a more pragmatic, experimental, and collective approach rooted in reality. Unlike Freud, Guattari believes that [[schizophrenia]] is an extreme mental state co-existent with the capitalist system itself. But capitalism keeps enforcing [[neurosis]] as a way of maintaining normality. Guattari's post-Marxist vision of capitalism provides a new definition not only of mental illness, but also of micropolitical means of subversion. It includes key essays such as "Balance-Sheet Program for Desiring Machines," cosigned by Deleuze (with whom he coauthored Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus), and the provocative "Everybody Wants To Be a Fascist."

On the day after the 2006 elections, Waxman directed his aides to draw up an "oversight plan" for the panel. He had already let it be known that he wanted to investigate [[Haliburton]], as well as alleged malfeasance related to government contracts in Iraq. It is very likely that he could also investigate the numerous scandals surrounding [[Jack Abramoff]]. This led to concerns among Democratic aides that the Government Reform Committee under Waxman would stage a repeat of the committee's performance under the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]], when it issued over 1,000 subpoenas. However, Waxman told [[Newsweek]] that he is interested in accountability and not retaliation. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15675859/site/newsweek/page/3/]

''Soft Subversions'' is another collection of Félix Guattari's essays, lectures, and interviews traces the militant anti-psychiatrist and theorist's thought and activity throughout the 1980s ("the winter years"). Concepts such as "micropolitics," "schizoanalysis," and "becoming-woman" open up new horizons for political and creative resistance in the "postmedia era." Guattari's energetic analyses of art, cinema, youth culture, economics, and power formations introduce a radically inventive thought process engaged in liberating subjectivity from the standardizing and homogenizing processes of global capitalism.

==Waxman and the Red Line==

In 1985, Waxman sponsored a bill to ban federal funding for the [[LACMTA Red Line|Red Line]] subway in his district supported by affluent [[NIMBY|homeowners group]]s in response to a [[methane gas]] explosion in the [[Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California|Fairfax District]]. In 2005, a robust [[real estate]] market, multi-dwelling construction boom, and lack of public mass transit planning on the westside caused by Waxman's bill caused gridlock in much of Waxman's district.<ref>http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/red-line-to-somewhere/881/ Christine Pelisek, Red Line to Somewhere, LA Weekly, 3 March 2005</ref> At the request of Los Angeles Mayor and [[LACMTA]] Board President [[Antonio Villaraigosa]], Waxman agreed to lift the ban if a panel of five engineers found tunneling under the [[Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California|Miracle Mile]] stretch of Wilshire Boulevard to be safe. In October 2005, the panel decided that tunneling was possible, and on [[December 16]], Waxman responded by announcing he would introduce a bill to the U.S. House which would lift the ban on federal money for subway tunneling in the district. This bill passed the House via unanimous vote on [[September 20]], [[2006]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/20/state/n171847D35.DTL&type=politics |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|title=In boost to LA subway extension, House lifts tunneling ban}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==

Waxman maintains that the 1985 bill was sponsored in the interest of public safety and not, as some allege, to hinder access of the working classes in [[South Los Angeles|South]] and [[East Los Angeles]] to his affluent district. In a letter to the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', Waxman cites the 2005 study: "The panel concurred as well that in 1985, the decision to hold further tunneling in abeyance was prudent, given the circumstances and extent of information and technology at that time. Much has changed since then to significantly improve tunneling and operation safety."<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-tuesday3.1jan03,1,2281424.story?ctrack=1&cset=true |archiveurl= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/953695751.html?dids=953695751&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT |archivedate=2006-01-03|title=The facts about Red Line safety|author=Henry Waxman|date=[[2006]]-[[01-03]]|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>

=== Works published in English ===

*''Molecular Revolution: Psychiatry and Politics'' (1984). Trans. Rosemary Sheed. Selected essays from ''Psychanalyse et transversalité'' (1972) and ''La révolution moléculaire'' (1977).

==Jewish identity and politics==

*''Les Trois écologies'' (1989). Trans. ''The Three Ecologies.'' Partial translation by Chris Turner (Paris: Galilee, 1989), full translation by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton (London: The Athlone Press, 2000).

Waxman, who represents a dominantly liberal district with a [[American Jew|relatively high concentration of Jews in number and proportion]], is proud of his "strong [[Jewish identity]]" and has drawn political conclusions from his exploration of the religion. "[[Judaism]] [[tikkun olam|is about acting and doing the right thing, not simply believing in it or mindlessly following ritual]]," he said in a speech presented by the [[University of Southern California]]'s Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life.<ref>{{cite news

*''Chaosmose'' (1992). Trans. ''Chaosmosis: an ethico-aesthetic paradigm'' (1995).

| first = Gretchen

*''Chaosophy'' (1995), ed. Sylvere Lotringer. Collected essays and interviews.

| last = Meier

*''Soft Subversions'' (1996), ed. Sylvere Lotringer. Collected essays and interviews.

| url = http://www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2006/04/24/News/Congressman.Lambastes.Bush.Republicans.On.Ethical.Issues-1866412.shtml

*''The Guattari Reader'' (1996), ed. Gary Genosko. Collected essays and interviews.

| publisher = [[Daily Trojan]]

*''Ecrits pour L'Anti-Œdipe'' (2004), ed. Stéphane Nadaud. Trans. ''The Anti-Œdipus Papers'' (2006). Collection of texts written between 1969 and 1972.

| title = Congressman lambastes Bush, Republicans on ethical issues

*''Chaos and Complexity'' (Forthcoming 2008, MIT Press). Collected essays and interviews.

| date = [[2006-04-24]]

| accessdate = 2006-12-15

}}</ref> Waxman said he applies Jewish ethical values to his congressional service. He further said that the "[[Jewish culture|Jewish values]]" of "[[human rights]], [[social justice]], and [[equal opportunities]] [...] are synonymous with [[culture of the United States|American values]]," and that such values "are in my opinion closer to a [[United States Democratic Party|democratic]] position." Saying it suffers from "[[political corruption|a culture of corruption]]" and "has become obsessed with secrecy," he accused the [[federal government of the United States|American government]] of having abandoned these values. "(The) Republican leadership ignores [[Powers of the President of the United States|presidential rules and norms]] and has no consideration for custom," he said.

In collaboration with [[Gilles Deleuze]]:

==District information==

Waxman's district includes the complete cities of Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Malibu, Westlake Village, West Hollywood and Woodland Hills, as well as such areas of Los Angeles as Beverly-Fairfax, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Beverlywood, Topanga, Agoura, Chatsworth and Westwood.

*''Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 1. L'Anti-Œdipe'' (1972). Trans. ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]'' (1977).

== See also ==

*''Kafka: Pour une Littérature Mineure'' (1975). Trans. ''Kafka: Toward a Theory of Minor Literature'' (1986).

* [[Hatch-Waxman Act]]

*''Rhizome: introduction'' (Paris: Minuit, 1976). Trans. "Rhizome," in ''Ideology and Consciousness'' 8 (Spring, 1981): 49-71. This is an early version of what became the introductory chapter in ''Mille Plateaux.''

* [[Politicization of science]] for a brief discussion of Waxman's work on the subject

*''Capitalisme et Schizophrénie 2. Mille Plateaux'' (1980). Trans. ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]'' (1987).

* [[Deficit Reduction Act of 2005]] for Waxman's take on whether that bill became law or not

*''On the Line'' (1983). Contains translations of "Rhizome," and "Politics" ("Many Politics") by Deleuze and Parnet.

*''Nomadology: The War Machine.'' (1986). Translation of "Plateau 12," ''Mille Plateaux.''

*''Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?'' (1991). Trans. ''What Is Philosophy?'' (1996).

Other collaborations:

==References==

<references/>

*''Les nouveaux espaces de liberté'' (1985). Trans. ''Communists Like Us'' (1990). With [[Antonio Negri]].

==External links==

*''Micropolitica: Cartografias do Desejo'' (1986). Trans. ''Molecular Revolution in Brazil'' (Forthcoming October 2007, MIT Press). With Suely Rolnik.

*[http://www.waxman.house.gov Official site]

*''The party without bosses'' (2003), by Gary Genosko. Features a 1982 conversation between Guattari and [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]], the current [[President of Brazil]].

*[http://www.democrats.reform.house.gov Government Reform Committee website]

*[http://www.democraticcommitment.com Democratic Commitment -- a project of L.A. PAC]

*[http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2001/12/Henry_Waxman_122401.html BuzzFlash Interviews Congressman Henry Waxman Part 1]

*[http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/01/Congressman_Waxman_013102.html BuzzFlash Interviews Congressman Henry Waxman Part 2]

*[http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/15/news-pelisek.php LA Weekly interview on subway proposal]

*[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050214/corn Waxman: Democrats' Eliot Ness]

*[http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/93_columns/101093.htm Los Angeles Times Interview: Henry Waxman ]

*[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/12/1411222 Rep. Henry Waxman on Karl Rove: "The President Said He Would Fire Anybody He Found Responsible"]

*[http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Congressman_writes_White_House_Did_President_0315.html Letter from Waxman to Andrew Card asking if Bush knowingly signed into law a bill that didn't pass]

*[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Henry_Waxman Congresspedia article on Henry Waxman]

*[http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/w000215/ Voting record maintained by the Washington Post]

=== Works untranslated into English ===

===Biographies and profiles===

Note: Many of the essays found in these works have been individually translated and can be found in the English collections.

*[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050214/corn/ "Waxman: Democrats' Eliot Ness"] - Profile by David Corn from ''[[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]]

*''Psychanalyse et transversalité. Essais d'analyse institutionnelle'' (1972).

*''La révolution moléculaire'' (1977, 1980). The 1980 version (éditions 10/18) contains substantially different essays from the 1977 version.

*''L'inconscient machinique. Essais de Schizoanalyse'' (1979).

*''Les années d'hiver, 1980-1985'' (1986).

*''Cartographies schizoanalytiques'' (1989).

Other collaborations:

{{start box}}

{{USRepSuccessionBox |

*''L’intervention institutionnelle'' (Paris: Petite Bibliothèque Payot, n. 382 - 1980). On [[institutional pedagogy]]. With Jacques Ardoino, G. Lapassade, Gerard Mendel, Rene Lourau.

state=California|

*''Pratique de l'institutionnel et politique'' (1985). With [[Jean Oury]] and Francois Tosquelles.

district=24 |

*(it) ''Desiderio e rivoluzione. Intervista a cura di Paolo Bertetto'' (Milan: Squilibri, 1977). Conversation with Franco Berardi (Bifo) and Paolo Bertetto.

before=[[John H. Rousselot]] |

after=[[Anthony C. Beilenson]] |

=== Select secondary sources ===

years=[[1975]] &ndash; [[1993]]

}}

*[[Éric Alliez]], ''La Signature du monde, ou Qu'est-ce que la philosophie de Deleuze et Guattari'' (1993). Trans. ''The Signature of the World: Or, What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?'' (2005).

{{USRepSuccessionBox |

*Gary Genosko, ''Félix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction'' (2002).

state=California|

*Gary Genosko (ed.), ''Deleuze and Guattari: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Volume 2: Guattari'' (2001).

district=29 |

before=[[Maxine Waters]] |

==External links==

after=[[Adam Schiff]] |

*[http://www.revue-chimeres.org/guattari/guattari.html Chimeres site on Guattari (in French)]

years=[[1993]] &ndash; [[2003]]

*[http://multitudes.samizdat.net/_Guattari-Felix_.html Multitudes page on Guattari (in French)]

}}

{{USRepSuccessionBox |

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guattari, Felix}}

state=California|

[[Category:1930 births]]

district=30 |

[[Category:1992 deaths]]

before=[[Xavier Becerra]] |

[[Category:French anarchists]]

start=[[2003]]

[[Category:Postmodern theory]]

}}

[[Category:Psychoanalytic theory]]

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[[Category:French philosophers]]

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[[Category:1939 births|Waxman, Henry]]

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[[Category:Living people|Waxman, Henry]]

[[fr:Félix Guattari]]

[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from California|Waxman, Henry]]

[[gl:Félix Guattari]]

[[Category:Jewish American politicians|Waxman, Henry]]

[[it:Félix Guattari]]

[[Category:Members of the California State Assembly|Waxman, Henry]]

[[nl:Félix Guattari]]

[[Category:Current members of the United States House of Representatives|Waxman, Henry]]

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[[Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni|Waxman, Henry]]

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