A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze Summary

A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari is a philosophical work exploring capitalism, schizophrenia, and alternative ways of organizing thought and society. The book introduces the concept of "rhizomatic" thinking—non-linear, interconnected ideas that resist hierarchical structures. It contains fifteen "plateaus" that can be read in any order, addressing topics like nomadology, smooth versus striated space, assemblages, and how power systems capture and control flows of desire, labor, and capital.

Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari were French philosophers who collaborated on the "Capitalism and Schizophrenia" series, which includes A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze was known for his work on difference, becoming, and immanence, while Guattari brought psychoanalytic and political perspectives. Together, they developed radical concepts challenging traditional Western philosophy's emphasis on binary logic, linear progression, and hierarchical thinking. Their partnership produced some of the most influential yet challenging texts in contemporary continental philosophy, reshaping discussions around politics, desire, and social organization.

A Thousand Plateaus is best suited for philosophy students, critical theorists, and readers interested in radical social theory and poststructuralism. Those studying cultural studies, political science, art theory, or seeking alternatives to conventional thinking will find value in Deleuze and Guattari's concepts. The book demands significant intellectual engagement and familiarity with philosophical terminology. Readers should approach it with patience, as the authors intentionally reject linear narrative structures, allowing chapters to be read in any sequence to emphasize multiplicity over singular interpretation.

A Thousand Plateaus is worth reading if you're prepared for dense, challenging philosophical material that rewards persistence with transformative conceptual tools. Deleuze and Guattari's concepts—rhizomes, deterritorialization, assemblages, smooth space—have profoundly influenced fields from political theory to art criticism. However, the book's deliberate complexity and rejection of conventional structure make it notoriously difficult. Consider starting with secondary guides or critical introductions. The payoff lies in developing entirely new ways of understanding power, change, and possibility beyond hierarchical and binary thinking frameworks.

In A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari use "rhizome" to describe non-hierarchical, networked systems of connection that oppose tree-like, linear thinking. Unlike a root system with a central origin, a rhizome spreads horizontally with multiple entry and exit points, allowing any element to connect with any other. This concept challenges traditional Western thought's emphasis on binary logic and singular origins. The rhizome represents multiplicity existing in "n-1" dimensions—always one less than fully knowable, preserving openness and potential. Books, societies, and thought itself can function rhizomatically rather than hierarchically.

In A Thousand Plateaus, "plateaus" are self-contained regions of continuous intensity that don't follow traditional narrative development with peaks and resolutions. Borrowed from anthropologist Gregory Bateson, each plateau explores specific concepts—nomadology, faciality, becoming-animal—that can be read independently and in any order. The fifteen plateaus function as interconnected yet autonomous sections, each dated to mark when particular dynamics achieved their purest historical expression. This structure embodies the book's rhizomatic principle: rather than building linearly toward conclusions, each plateau maintains its own consistency while connecting to others through multiple pathways.

Smooth and striated space represent two organizational tendencies that Deleuze and Guattari identify across multiple domains in A Thousand Plateaus. Smooth space is open, non-metric, and nomadic—like the ocean or desert where paths aren't predetermined and movement is free-flowing. Striated space is regulated, measured, and sedentary—like city grids where the State controls commerce, movement, and positions. These concepts apply to music (rhythm versus melody), mathematics (non-metric versus metric), and labor (free-action versus work). Every assemblage contains both tendencies, constantly transforming between smoothness and striation.

Nomadology, explored in the "Treatise on Nomadology—The War Machine" plateau, examines how nomadic societies operate outside State power structures. Deleuze and Guattari contrast the nomad war machine—which exists exterior to the State and inhabits smooth space—with State apparatuses that striate, capture, and regulate. Nomads remain undifferentiated in smooth space, following deterritorialized flows rather than fixed positions. This isn't merely about historical nomads but provides a model for understanding resistance, creativity, and forms of organization that escape hierarchical capture. Nomad science operates through problems and becomings rather than State-sanctioned axioms.

Deterritorialization in A Thousand Plateaus refers to processes that destabilize, decode, or free flows from fixed structures and territories. Deleuze and Guattari distinguish between relative deterritorialization (moving between coded territories) and absolute deterritorialization (reaching pure immanence or "the earth itself"). Capitalism constantly deterritorializes traditional social forms but immediately reterritorializes them within its axiomatic system. The concept applies to thought, desire, social formations, and space—anything that escapes established boundaries or coding. Understanding deterritorialization helps map how change, creativity, and resistance operate against capturing forces seeking to restratify flows.

Assemblages (agencements) are heterogeneous combinations of bodies, actions, statements, and technologies that produce specific effects in A Thousand Plateaus. Unlike unified wholes, assemblages are provisional groupings that stratify and destratify, create territories and deterritorialize simultaneously. They have material and expressive dimensions, with varying speeds and intensities that determine their capacities. Deleuze and Guattari analyze social formations as assemblages—configurations that can be disrupted, recombined, or transformed rather than fixed structures. This concept replaces substance-based thinking with relational, dynamic understanding: entities are what they do within particular arrangements, not what they essentially are.

A Thousand Plateaus provides conceptual tools for analyzing how power operates through capture, stratification, and overcoding rather than simply repression. Deleuze and Guattari show how States and capitalism appropriate deterritorialized flows, turning nomadic war machines into military institutions and decoded desires into axiomatized equivalences. Understanding these mechanisms reveals possibilities for resistance: creating lines of flight, sustaining smooth spaces, and building assemblages that escape capture. The book's concepts—micropolitics, molecular organization, becoming—offer alternatives to traditional revolutionary models. By thinking in terms of flows, intensities, and becomings rather than identities and structures, readers gain frameworks for enacting change beyond hierarchical political models.

The Body without Organs (BwO) is a plane of consistency or potential that Deleuze and Guattari contrast with organized, stratified bodies in A Thousand Plateaus. It's not a body lacking organs but rather a body freed from organizational structures that determine its functions and capacities. The BwO represents a state of pure intensity and flow before differentiation into specific forms—a field of immanence that assemblages draw upon. Creating a BwO involves dismantling rigid organizations while avoiding complete destratification that leads to chaos or death. This concept extends their earlier work on desiring-production, emphasizing how bodies (biological, social, textual) can reconfigure their capacities beyond predetermined arrangements.