ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Girard's ideas, as they are relevant to psychotherapy, in more detail. It provides a brief outline of Girard's critique of the Freudian Oedipus Complex and narcissism in order to illustrate, from a Girardian perspective, the "myth" of original spontaneous desire and the real mimetic nature of desire. The concept of mimetic desire as the foundation of both the self and society is the basis of interdividual psychology, a psychology that is purely social. As in dialogical self theory, the individual can only be conceived of in social and relational terms but the role of the other in the psyche is conceived of somewhat differently. The subtle transition between external and internal mediation could also be understood as a reflection of the greater mobility of voices in the dialogical self. Psychotherapy is also an economic activity; psychotherapists are in competition with each other for wealth in the form of jobs, patients, and trainees.
