Collapse Volume III, 243–254

Chapter

In Memoriam: Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995)

EXCERPT

On 4th November 1995, Gilles Deleuze committed suicide by throwing himself from the window of his Paris apartment. He was 70 years old. In 1969, after having completed his major thesis (later published as Difference and Repetition), he was rushed to hospital, and diagnosed with tuberculosis; emergency pulmonary surgery immediately followed. With the passing years his health slowly deteriorated, and by the end of his life, he was dependent upon a machine: an artificial respirator.

Obviously, the question of Gilles Deleuze’s suicide remains a problem which can quite properly be considered as a part of his philosophy……