Girard's Comments on Psychoanalysis -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 07:47:37 02/27/08 Wed
Author: Kiernan
Subject: Girard's Comments on Psychoanalysis

In an interesting passage in "I see Satan," Girard is pointing fingers at the modern psychoanalytical explanations of scriptural and mythological motifs. He says, "The mythic perspectives, and the modern theories that prolong them (psychoanalysis, for example), take the mythic accusation for legitimate. In our eyes everyone is more or less guilty of parricide and incest, if only at the level of desire" (Satan 109). I know that this is taking Girard's comments out of context, and I don't want to appear at all aligned with modern psychoanalytical theory, however......isn't there an element of truth in the idea which Girard is mocking? According to Christ, all men, more or less, have participated in adultery: "But I say to you that that everyone who looks at a women with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew [oops, the corrupt text!] 5:28). Thus, even if in the modern, psychoanalytical sense all men are not desiring secretly to sleep with their mothers, all men are guilty; all have, according to scripture, participated in their heart in adultery, murder, lying, and coveting. It seems here, at least, that Girard's overemphasis (in my view) on the innocence of the victim has led him to misunderstand an idea vital to interpreting scripture in general and one vital to his theory of mimetic rivalry itself.

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Replies:

Re: Girard's Comments on Psychoanalysis -- j.jackson, 08:27:11 02/27/08 Wed