Mimetic desire: what is it, how does it affect us and what are its causes?

Mimetic desire leads us to want to achieve goals that others have achieved, even though we do not need to.

One of the aspects of social life involves seeing things in others that we do not have and that awaken certain envy in us. Whether it is wealth, beauty, property or way of being, there are things that seem to make other people happy, so it makes sense to want them for ourselves as well.

With the great influence of the mass media, especially social networks in recent years, a social phenomenon such as mimetic desire has been gaining more and more strength. People crave what they see in the media, what makes celebrities look like successful people.

In this article we are going to talk about this curious concept that, although it must have existed throughout history, It is only relatively recently that it has been baptized as mimetic desire.. Let's go a little deeper about it.

What is mimetic desire?

To define the mimetic desire is not simple, in spite of the fact that nobody escapes from its spell. We can say that it is a social desire based, basically, on wanting the same as others, the result of envy and envy of others.It is the fruit of envy and the idea that if there is something that seems to make other people happy, why shouldn't it make us happy? It is inevitable to long for the things that others have.

This desire must have been present throughout the history of mankind, but it has been intensifying in a way that has been but it has been intensifying exponentially in consumerist societies.. Capitalism, supported by the media, has awakened unnecessary needs in people, who, bombarded with all kinds of ads and publicity in movies, series and, more currently, in social networks, see products and services they wish they had. We don't need them, but the mass media make sure we think just the opposite.

Mimetic desire already begins to manifest itself in infancy, something that can be observed in babies. Let's think of one of them, surrounded by lots of toys but ignoring them because he is too busy fiddling with his pacifier. Suddenly, along comes his older brother who wants to play with a toy car that was lying around. The baby, upon seeing his little brother, starts to throw a tantrum because now he wants to play with that car to which until a few seconds ago he was paying no attention at all.

The origin of the concept

While mimetic desire has existed throughout human history, it was the philosopher René Girard who coined the term during the 1970s. He originally conceived of it by analyzing great works of world literature, seeing a common pattern. Some examples that Girard himself analyzed were "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes, "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert, "Red and Black" by Stendhal, "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust and some works by Dostoevsky.

The protagonist of many of these works longed to be what other great characters had been, feeling great discomfort for not having achieved it.. They were stories that reflected how inside the characters a desire was awakened that was not genuine, but to be the same as their idol. This figure so recurrent in universal literature was what made René Girard raise the idea of mimetic desire, very applicable to people of flesh and Blood and that is articulated not only in the world of advertising and mass media, but also in sexual desire, business or aesthetics.

Examples of mimetic desire

Social networks feed mimetic desire. They make us see things on a daily basis, objects and services that we don't need but that by the simple fact of seeing them in the mass media awaken our interest.. It is this desire that makes us all end up imitating each other, turning us into a homogeneous society. We feel that if we do not have the same as others we are not worth, that we do not fit in, so we can understand that the mimetic desire can be a source of discomfort.

With or without social networks, this mimetic desire contributes to the formation of fashions. For example, anyone who grew up in the 2000s will remember that colorful silicone bracelets with engraved phrases were all the rage at the time. Although these bracelets were, in the opinion of many, simplistic, ugly and tacky, any boy or girl who didn't have one was seen as a freak. For this reason many fell under social pressure and spent their weekly allowance comparing them.

Another more recent example is the case of the spinners, a fad that even splashed adults. Today they are still sold, but it was 5 or 6 years ago when everyone was crazy about these little toys that to this day we do not really know what they were for. Some said they were for relaxation, others that they helped children to concentrate. The only thing they seemed to be good for was to get people's money with the excuse that whoever didn't have it was missing out.

These are just two of the many examples we could give that would serve to demonstrate the effect of this socio-psychological phenomenon. The mimetic desire articulates all fashions, explains our most basic motivations, explains our most basic motivations, explains our most basic motivations.It explains our most basic motivations, defines commercial rivalry and, unfortunately, is also behind the emergence and chronification of certain psychological disorders, such as eating disorders.

In fact, René Girard himself talks about the relationship of an ED with mimetic desire in his book "Anorexia and mimetic desire" (2009). In this publication he talks about how the canon of beauty has exercised a real tyrannymaking many women anxiously desire to have an extremely thin body, similar to that of supermodels and other celebrities.

It also happens with men who, eager to have the body of actors, influencers and public figures such as Jason Momoa or Chris Evans end up developing an image disorder such as vigorexia. It is not surprising because, increased with social networks, it seems that having a well-sculpted body is synonymous with happiness, wealth and unlimited sex appeal.

Mimetic desire, survival and psychological discomfort.

It is believed that this desire to have what others have would have an evolutionary explanation and implicated in survival.. This question has been addressed by Luker Burgis in his book "Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life". Throughout evolution, people have imitated the behaviors of others, believing that if this has helped them to survive, it should also work for us.

Let's think about prehistoric humans. If one group of our ancestors developed a new hunting or farming technique and it worked for them to combat hunger, it is logical to think that others would want to imitate them. This would mean that the advances of one human group would eventually spread to the others, making humanity progress together.

Today, mimetic desire no longer seems to fulfill this role. Far from serving to acquire something beneficial that others do, this desire to want to have what others have can plunge us into intense rivalry.. It can cause us to become unhealthily envious, wanting to have what our idols have and even wanting to harm those who have more than we do. While we try to be more like those who have things we believe to be positive, if we can't get them, we may be determined to try to make those who have them lose them.

And if they are not objects, we end up desiring the sculpted bodies of athletes or the lives of famous people. We want what others have, we want to be like them, right down to the way we dress and the way we are. This is also one of the reasons why certain senseless challenges (e.g., eating dishwashing soap) go viral. Mimetic desire motivates all kinds of large-scale social behavior, no matter how stupid it may seem.

It is for this reason that mimetic desire can entail great suffering, especially at the psychological level.. Wanting to imitate others without being aware that you cannot be the same and that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, that you will never be exactly like anyone else, causes discomfort because you make every effort and do not get results.

Only when we realize that no one is the same, that everyone is as they are and will have their own successes and failures, we will feel a little freer by allowing ourselves to be ourselves. The obsession to be like others will only bring us discomfort and dissatisfaction. Happiness is not found in others, it is found in oneself, who has all or more of what is necessary to achieve it.