Deleuze, Guattari, Khôra, and the Taiji Diagram

Abstract

Abstract French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, interprets khôra as a screen that has cosmological, genealogical, and psychological significances. Khôra is the womb of all that comes to be and becomes, including yin and yang, which are two modes of the life impulse and the two conspicuous elements of the Taiji Diagram. The ‘S’ line between yin and yang is a khôra or a sieve that ensures intercommunication and counter-dependence between yin and yang and that keeps the system dynamic, entropy-defying, playful, and vital. Deleuze’s interpretation of the Bergsonian notion of differentiation reveals the rationale of the Taiji Diagram, even if it is not his intention to do so. The outer boundary of the Taiji Diagram is the originary khôra that mediates between chaos and cosmos and that gives impetus to and sustains the process of chaosmosis, which has both cosmological and psychological implications. For Félix Guattari, chaosmosis indicates the process of subjectivation. The interruption of the process hinders the singularization and renewal of subjectivity and impairs psychological health. Therein lies the gist of Guattari’s book, Chaosmosis. The article belongs to the growing literature on khôralogy (a.k.a. chorology) and interology.