ABSTRACT
The author interprets Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concepts of the schizophrenic and paranoid poles using the example of the Lithuanian political scene, where the revolutionary drives of 1990 were quickly replaced by reactionary nationalist forces. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia provides an analysis of the processes of desire production. Deleuze and Guattari do not differentiate between libidinal economy and political economy: libidinal and political flows form the processes of desire produce what we call the real. In this sense, schizophrenia designates not the clinical state of mental illness, but the deepest tendency of capitalism. It is associated with the creative tendency of capitalism, its potential for change and permanent revolution. The counter-tendency of capitalism is seen as paranoia. In this context, paranoia does not mean the clinical state, but the libidinal tendency to stick to stable and fixed meanings, beliefs, and authorities. A good example, it is argued, is the comparison between the two events related to the Lithuanian parliament: in 1991 the unarmed population defended the parliament from external forces, while in 2009 the same population attacked its own parliament as a reaction against the first shock of the financial crisis and social cuts. The author argues that the unconscious paranoiac 108investments manifested themselves shortly after the Re-establishment of Independence in 1991. The independent state started functioning as an apparatus of repression, defending in a paranoiac way a pre-war system of codes and beliefs and excluding ethnic and sexual minorities. The increasing outbursts against minorities, it is argued, reveal the deep connections between the paranoid form of the psyche and the nation state.
