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 […]