Fulfillment Stories
Stories of times in a person’s life in which they took an intentional action which they believe they did well and which brought them a profound sense of satisfaction or joy. Fulfillment stories help reveal a pattern of core motivational drive.
Core Motivational Drive
A unique and enduring behavioral drive orienting a person to achieve a distinct pattern of results. Understanding core motivations can help people identify their thick (less mimetic) desires and better align their desires with their motivational energy and talent.
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 […]
Mediation of Desire
What models of desire do—or the process through which desire takes shape from the relationship between a subject and a model. Models are mediators of desire, which means that they always stand between the person imitating them and the objects of desire that they model for that person. There is no way for an imitator […]