Introduction: Why Institutional Analysis, Why Now?

In many ways, 2022 was a momentous year. As we slowly emerged from the global COVID-19 pandemic, people the world over began rethinking institutions. From issues of policing, governance, territorial sovereignty, public health and, of course, mental health, the austere institutions that guarantee sociality, and which, until recently, have been understood as rigid and inert, have been called into question. The year also marked the 30th anniversary of Félix Guattari’s death. Guattari’s life and work constantly challenged and reinvented institutions. As a militant philosopher, psychotherapist and activist, he tirelessly sought to transform alienating institutions in order to collectively disalienate them, creating the maximum potential for freedom for the individuals who inhabit and transverse institutional arrangements. It is for this reason that there is an urgent need to revisit Guattari’s work of institutional analysis.