We began with the idea that underpins all of Girard’s theories––imitation. Conflict between people, he believes, is rooted in our propensity for imitation or in what he calls “mimetic desire”—an idea that began to take shape for him through his study of the great European novelists.

His ideas do not magically make us stop being mimetic. The mimetic theory gives us a framework to avoid situations that inspire debilitating desires; what type of person to avoid and who to keep close