René Girard’s ‘Mimetic Desire’: A Theory That Explains Everything
<p>According to Girard, ‘all desire is a desire for being’, meaning, unlike need (which makes itself felt in our bodies ‘without any help from third parties’), desire is socially determined:</p>
<p>Behind our desires lurks a mediator or model who most often goes unrecognized by others, including the person doing the imitating. As a general rule, we desire what those around us desire. Our models can be real or imaginary, collective or individual. We imitate the desires of those we admire. We want to ‘become like them’, to spirit away their very being.</p>
<p>One of Girard’s best examples of this is the story of Salome, who, after dancing for King Herod, is granted one wish, but, unsure of what to choose, asks her mother Herodias, who says she should request the head of John the Baptist. According to Girard, this scene in Mark 6: 21 reveals imitation to be the ‘essence of desire’. Contrary to what we often assume, ‘there is no preordained object of desire’, we have to be told, like Salome, what we want:</p>
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