![]() In primitive societies, such crises were resolved by the 'scapegoating mechanism,' in which the community, en masse, turned on an unpremeditated victim. At certain points in the life of a society, according to Girard, this mimetic conflict erupts into a crisis in which all difference dissolves in indiscriminate violence. Girard's point o departure is what he calles 'mimesis,' the conflict that arises when human rivals compete to differentiate themselves from each other, yet succeed only in becoming more and more alike. In a dialogue with two psychiatrists (Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort), Girard probes an encyclopedic array of topics, ranging across the entire spectrum of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and cultural production. ![]() ![]() ![]() This is the single fullest summation of Girard's ideas to date, the book by which they will stand or fall. In its scope and itnerest it can be compared with Freud's Totem and Taboo, the subtext Girard refutes with polemic daring, vast erudition, and a persuasiveness that leaves the reader compelled to respond, one way or another. ![]() An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis. ![]()
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