Anti-Oedipus - Fascism, The Family, and The Desire For Oppression

Fascism, The Family, and The Desire For Oppression

In a preface written for the English-language edition, Michel Foucault describes Anti-Oedipus as a contribution towards the fight against fascism—he suggests that it may be called "an Introduction to the Non-Fascist Life." The book attempts to track down "all varieties of fascism, from the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives." Thus, it is concerned "not only historical fascism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini," he stresses, "but also the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploit us."