Abstract:
In this paper I want to think about the relationship between competence and performance. I will use Timothy Gallwey’s 1974 bestseller The Inner Game of Tennis as a lens through which to see how Deleuze and Guattari deal with this particular problematic. In doing so, I hope to cast their work in more practically-oriented and (hopefully) simpler light. The Inner Game of Tennis isn’t an entirely eccentric choice. The Inner Game of Tennis is a work of pop philosophy of the type Anti-Oedipus wanted to be, but never really was. The fact it failed to live up to the author’s hopes should not be used to discount or dismiss the original intention and it is my hope that reading The Inner Game of Tennis alongside Anti-Oedipus will enable me to illuminate its ‘helpful’ side and perhaps point a way forward for those of us who do not merely laugh at the idea that schizoanalysis might be of practical use in everyday life.