The echoes of Ideology in Guattari (and Deleuze). The inheritance of the ideological apparatus of Althusser in the notions of equipment and assemblage

This article aims to elucidate the position of Félix Guattari and secondarily that of Gilles Deleuze regarding the concept of ideology. For this, the paper analyzes Guattari’s intellectual journey from his first articles collected in Psychanalyse et transversalité (1974) to Mille Plateaux (1980). It proceeds in two steps. First, it specifies what is the singular concept of ideology with which Guattari is arguing. This is none other than the notion developed by Louis Althusser as can be detected in explicit references as well as in implicit allusions. Second, it argues, from the discussion of the central elements of the Guattarian position the affinity that exists between Guattari and Deleuze’s famous concept of assemblage and the critical challenge of the apparatuses Althusser’s ideologies.