Double Bind
When a model notices that someone is imitating him and takes the imitator as his own model in return. The more that each party is drawn into mimesis and doubles down on the rivalry, the stronger the mimetic bond between them becomes. Each side is bound to the other (the double bind) because each side takes the other as a model. You could think of a mimetic double bind like two atoms or molecules that are bound together because of the way their energies are oriented.[1] [1] The term double bind comes from the work of anthropologist Gregory Bateson, known for his theory that schizophrenia originates in dual and contradictory messages.
Discernment
A process for making decisions that includes but goes beyond rational analysis. It comes from the Latin word meaning to distinguish one thing from another. Discernment involves a power of perception, tacit knowledge, and ability to “read” desires. Because desires lack scientific and objective criteria to judge, discernment is required to choose between which desires to feed and which desires to starve.
Negative Imitation
When a person tries to establish difference from the rival and takes the rival as a model but in a way in which imitation is inverted and becomes the mirror image of the model. For instance, if the rival wears black shirts, the imitator will wear white shirts. Most people think of imitation as doing the same thing as a model. In mimetic theory, imitation seems means that one’s behavior is based off the choices of a model—whether that imitation comes in a positive form (leading to the same things) or a negative form (leading to difference things). In both forms, the imitator’s choices are directly shaped by the model. Negative imitation usually happens because the imitator wants the same things as the model but doesn’t want to admit it; therefore, he differentiates himself on a superficial basis through negative imitation of external things: different clothes, different preferences, or maybe a different manner of speaking. Negative imitation often happens between rival political factions. If one of them uses a certain term to describe something, the other will refuse to use the same word due to negative imitation. (Consider the debate in the United States about whether to refer to the same terrorist organization as ISIS or ISIL, each side disguising its negative imitation behind intellectual-sounding rhetoric.)
Mimesis
A sophisticated form of adult imitation in adults that is usually hidden. In mimetic theory, mimesis has a negative connotation because it usually leads to rivalry and conflict—that’s one of the main reasons why Girard referred to the phenomenon with the word mimesis (from the Greek, μίμησις mīmēsis, from μιμεῖσθαι mīmeisthai, “to imitate”) and not the more common word imitation. People are more conscious of imitation than they are of mimesis.
Romantic Lie
The idea that our choices are completely autonomous, independent, and self-directed. Someone under the power of the Romantic Lie never thinks of their behavior as mimetic.
Model (of Desire)
A person, thing, or group that shapes and orients the desire of another. Because desire is not object-oriented but model-oriented, models perform the important role of generating and directing desire in human life. Models are dangerous because they easily become obstacles or rivals to a person who becomes fixated on a particular model, which often happens sub-consciously.
Hierarchy of Values
A system in which values are understood as interrelated and seen as part of a logical hierarchal relationship in which some values are derivative or less important than others in a given context.
Meme (Memetic) Theory
The field of mimetics studies how information and cultures develop based on principles of Darwinian evolution. The term meme was coined by ethologist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. It was meant to evoke the word gene (from biology) because a meme is the cultural equivalent—words, accents, ideas, tunes, and more that spread from brain to brain through some process of replication or imitation. Despite the importance of imitation in meme theory, it is a completely distinct field of study.
Mimetic Theory
An explanation of social and cultural phenomena based on the role of imitation in human behavior—particularly, the imitation of desire (mimetic desire) and its consequences. The foundations of mimetic theory were laid by the French polymath René Girard in 1961 in his book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, which described mimetic desire (what he usually referred to as “triangular” desire at the time). Girard’s initial insight into the structure of desire developed over the next several decades to include a unified set of ideas that came to be known as mimetic theory. The theory is built around a core set of interrelated ideas: mimetic desire, the mimetic nature of rivalry, mimetic desire as the origin of violence, the scapegoat mechanism, and the religious and cultural rituals, taboos, and prohibitions (the development of law) designed to prevent mimetic crises and resulting violence.
Desire
A complex phenomenon of human life involving emotions and actions which are part of the process of wanting something or someone