Foucault between Pleasure and Desire

Abstract

Our point of departing consists of two concepts, pleasure and desire, pointed out by Gilles Deleuze in his analysis and critique of Foucault’s work. Foucault responded and hastened to show that his concept of pleasure has nothing in common with either the ordinary understanding of pleasure or with the conception attributed to him by Deleuze. In the essay the question of what Foucault’s own conception of pleasure consists of is further elaborated. It turns out, finally, that Foucault in fact appears to be near Deleuze, condemning the idea of pleasure in the Deleuzian vein as a rotten idea, trying to maintain positivity, etc. However, precisely here, where he appears closest to Deleuze, he is also at the same time the farthest from him. Deleuzian desire is namely something “out-of-joint”, something which can be properly considered only by departing from the break of Modernity. In other words, Foucault’s own theoretical project is in crisis, as diagnosed by Deleuze, precisely because it does not have and it does not want to have a concept of crisis as such.