What is mimesis in art?
Mimesis in art is the tendency for artists to imitate, or copy, the style, technique, form, content, or any other aspect of another artist’s work. It is the idea that Erich Auerbach made popular in his book, Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. The idea is that art imitates nature. All art is […]
What is the mimetic approach?
The “mimetic approach” to problems or to current events or issues means approaching them as fundamental problems of desire and trying to under the mimetic impulses and consequences of mimetic desire behind these problems. A salient example: a scientific or political approach to mask-wearing during the COVID-19 global pandemic would be to try to find […]
What is a scapegoat in psychology?
Psychological scapegoating refers to the tendency to blame someone else for one’s own problems, a process that often results in feelings of prejudice toward the person or group that one is blaming. Scapegoating serves as an opportunity to explain failure or misdeeds, while maintaining one’s positive self-image. In mimetic theory, scapegoating runs deeper than psychology. It is […]
Cycle 2
A process of constructive desire that can form stronger bonds of cooperation and mutual giving.
Cycle 1
A process of destructive desire that leads to conflict.
Reflexivity
A two-way feedback loop in which perceptions affect an environment and the environment then affects perceptions. In a mimetic rivalry, neither party can act without affecting the perceptions and desires of the other. Financial manager and philanthropist George Soros made the principle of reflexivity a key to his investment strategy by noticing that financial markets […]
External Mediation
When a person imitates the desires of someone separated by time or space or social sphere and there is little chance of the person ever coming into contact with their model. In external mediation, the model mediates desire from outside, or external to, the world of the subject. Also called Celebristan.
Celebristan
The world of external mediation.
Freshmenistan
The world of internal mediation.
Internal Mediation
When a person lives within the same time, place, or social sphere as their model and the likelihood of coming into contact with the model is high. In internal mediation, the model mediates desire from inside, or internal to, the world of the subject. With the social and economic flattening of the world, more desire […]