Mimetic desire (Girard)
Girard's claim that we do not desire things directly but copy the desires of models. When the model is close at hand (a peer, a sibling, a colleague) and wants the same object, imitation turns into rivalry, and the rivals become more and more alike while each feels uniquely opposed to the other.
What drives it
It explains desire that appears out of nowhere when someone else wants something, and rivalry that intensifies as the object becomes irrelevant. For identification, it gives a sharp lens on envy among peers and on why groups resolve shared rivalry by uniting against a scapegoat.
How it shows
Work
Two co-founders or senior peers who want the same role, project or credit, each insisting the other is unreasonable, while their behaviour mirrors exactly. A product nobody cared about until a competitor launched it. A deal that becomes must-win once a rival bidder appears. Envy is sharpest among close equals: the colleague hired in the same year, not the CEO. Girard's distinction is useful: external mediation (a distant model you openly admire, such as a famous founder) breeds emulation; internal mediation (a near peer) breeds rivalry, because the model is also an obstacle. When a team's rivalries escalate, watch for unity returning only after a common enemy or scapegoat is named.
Relationships
Siblings fighting over the same toy, inheritance or parental attention long past the point it matters. Friends who suddenly want the same partner, career or lifestyle. Romantic interest that rises when a third person shows interest.
Self
You find yourself wanting something only after a peer has it or wants it. You feel contempt for a rival you closely resemble, and catch yourself copying them while denying it.
What tells it apart
Envy: Envy is the painful feeling of wanting what another has; mimetic desire is the claim that the wanting itself was borrowed from the other. Ask whether the person wanted it before the model did.
Social comparison: Comparison measures where you stand; mimesis shapes what you want. Comparison can make you feel inferior without giving you any new desire.
Jealousy: Jealousy fears losing something you already have to a rival; mimetic rivalry fights over something neither may have, and the rivals grow more alike as it escalates.
A test
Ask whether the person (or you) wanted the object before a particular rival showed interest, and whether the desire fades when the rival loses interest.
Questions to carry
- When did the wanting start, before the rival showed interest or after, and what happens to it if they lose interest?
- What do I want only since someone close to me started wanting it?
How strong the research is
weak. A philosophical and literary-anthropological theory rather than empirical psychology; research on social learning of preferences and children copying each other's choices is consistent with parts of it, but Girard's core claims about rivalry, violence and the scapegoat mechanism have not been directly tested.
Where it comes from
René Girard, 1961 (Deceit, Desire and the Novel); 1972 (Violence and the Sacred); 1982 (The Scapegoat)
Sources
- René Girard, Deceit, Desire and the Novel (Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque) (1961)