Mimetic Rivalry

Definition

Mimetic rivalry is the conflict that arises when two people desire the same object through the mechanism of mimetic desire. When subject and model both want the same thing, they become rivals — and the rivalry has a paradoxical dynamic: the obstacle intensifies desire rather than diminishing it.

The Double-Bind of Rivalry

In ordinary desire, an obstacle is discouraging: if I cannot have X, I learn to want something else. But in mimetic rivalry, the rival’s desire confirms that the object is worth wanting. The more my rival wants it, the more I want it. The more I want it, the more my rival wants it. The two parties become mirrors of each other’s desire, locked in escalating competition.

Girard called this the double bind of mimetic rivalry: the model says both “imitate me” (by desiring what I desire) and “do not imitate me” (do not take what I want). The subject is pulled in both directions simultaneously.

The Object Recedes

As rivalry intensifies, something remarkable happens: the original object gradually loses importance. What began as competition over a specific thing becomes competition about something deeper — prestige, recognition, being. Girard called this the metaphysical dimension of rivalry: the rivals are no longer competing for an object but for a quality of existence they believe the other possesses.

This is why rivals are so difficult to satisfy even if they “win” the original object. The victory over the rival is the real prize — but it is never complete, because the other party simply seeks a new arena of competition.

Mimetic Doubles

At the peak of mimetic rivalry, Girard observed that rivals become mirror images of each other. They are drawn from opposite positions into identical behavior. The more they fight each other, the more they resemble each other. Girard called these figures mimetic doubles or monstrous doubles.

This dynamic appears throughout mythology and literature: Romulus and Remus, Cain and Abel, Shakespeare’s feuding families, Dostoevsky’s doubles. It also appears in modern political polarization, where opposing parties increasingly mirror each other’s tactics and rhetoric.

Mimetic Contagion

Individual mimetic rivalry can spread through a community when others are drawn in — either by taking sides or by developing their own parallel rivalries. This is mimetic contagion. As it spreads, the community approaches a sacrificial crisis: a state of generalized violence where all distinctions threaten to collapse.