but one of several eminently productive incarnations of the con-
ception of friendship espoused by Guattari during his lifetime. We are
convinced that if being ‘friends of thought’ is, in fact, the hallmark of
the philosophical project in general, then it must also be true that
philosophers are friends with each other, independent from the fact
that they are dead or alive. The creation of a philosophical portrait is,
of course, the only true reason for the existence of the history of philo-
sophy, or at least the type practised by the authors featured in this small,
but truly philosophical book. And so, with the final return to the
ephemeral nature of friendship, Bifo proposes to show, or at least to
suggest, how the elements of irony, play, language, history and singular-
ity intersect with the fundamental friendship at the core of Guattari’s
thought. These elements do not contradict, but rather complement and
extend the possibility of happy depression, yet allow friendship to exist
beyond distress as active affirmation of the project of philosophy.xvi Preface9780230_221192_01_prexvi.pdf 10/3/08 11:31 AM Page xvi