The Mimetic Brain (Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture) Paperback – 30 Jan. 2016

Unusual take on classic psychoanalysis, but it left me largely unmoved and unconvinced. More of a curiosity than anything else.

Réné and Jean have answered questions I've had since childhood. It's made my Buddhist practice better and helped me to understand true self-empowerment. Buddhists say "avoid identification." This is right to an extent but Jean's explanation is more therapeutic. Notice how our sense of desire and hatred is bound up with the sense of self. As we imitate desires we appropriate a sense of self anew with other people's desires. Seeing how alien our influences are is the therapy, as it becomes easy to let go. I wasn't born with these desires. These desires are not who we are, are alien, outside of us and often used to manipulate us instead of empower us. Trace where your current desires originally came from and watch the desire drop. If it came from an external influence then feeling the desire is "me" is the forgetfulness.

I agree with the review by Burke, that this book presents the nature and operation of mimetic desire and the resultant violence in a way that clarifies the whole subject of mimetic desire. It is technical; not a fast read, but it is worth the time spent.

This book is incredible. In consice terms Oughourlian reveals the psychology of the memetic mechanism and really gives a solid new direction in many ways. Although technical, it gives a more analytical and rigorous look at applying memetic theory in practice than any book by Girard. Oughourlian is required reading on this topic.