Need for imitation
René Girard taught us that man imitates (i.e., copies) from others his desires, opinions and lifestyle, and that the ability and desire for imitation are essential elements of learning mechanisms, especially with regard to children.
Girard speaks of mimetic desire. By this expression we must mean, in my opinion, not only the imitation of the desires of others, but also the desire to imitate, in general, the behavior and feelings of others, a desire that I call the need for imitation.
I believe, in fact, that man has an innate need to imitate his fellows, at least those on whom his survival depends, for the simple fact that without imitating others he would not know how to live, how to learn, how to speak, how to think, how to behave socially, that is, how to communicate and interact within a community.
When a child is born, his cognitive and rational abilities are practically nil, so he can only learn social behavior by imitation. On the other hand, its cognitive and rational resources, including critical capacity, are developed through imitation of others’ expressions and reasoning . Therefore, I consider it impossible to think rationally without resorting to modes learned by imitation from someone else.
On the other hand, it is evident that perfect imitation (in the sense of an acquired skill) is possible without an understanding of what one is imitating, that is, what one is copying unconsciously. The result is what Daniel Dennet calls “competence without understanding.”
Mirror neurons
The discovery of mirror neurons by Giacomo Rizzolatti’s group seems to confirm the validity of Girard’s theory. This discovery leads us to think that there is a genetically determined apparatus in the nervous system dedicated to imitating the behavior of others not only in terms of outward forms, but also the feelings that accompany the gestures observed. We can therefore hypothesize that mirror neurons are devices that make empathy, gestural imitation, and perhaps rational imitation possible.
In fact, I suppose that the human mind mainly serves to copy gestures, languages, cognitions, feelings, and motivations from other human beings. In general, I would say that humans copy from others strategies for satisfying their needs. This explains the ease with which what we call induced needs are formed in an individual. In other words, if an individual copies others, it is not so much because others induce him to copy them by force or persuasion (which can happen anyway) but because of a spontaneous desire or need on the part of the individual to imitate those on whom his well-being depends, beginning with his own parents.
I further suppose that just as we have a need and instinct for imitation, so we have an innate ability to understand how similar or different our interlocutor is from us in thoughts and feelings, and to react accordingly, automatically, involuntarily, in a friendly or hostile way. We might call this ability feeling the degree of affinity.
Reassessment of conformity
The need for imitation is consistent with the fact that human beings are interdependent. Indeed, if there were no such need and the consequent conformity of individuals to the forms, norms and values of a community, indispensable cooperation would be impossible.
In light of the above, a reassessment of conformity is in order. This, in fact, should not be seen as a (deleterious) free and conscious choice, but as a genetically determined imitative drive, i.e., an instinct, one of the few left to humans in the course of evolution. In other words, conformity has, in my opinion, a fundamental and irreplaceable adaptive function for the survival of the individual and the preservation of his species. In summary: we cannot not imitate; if anything, we can choose whom to imitate.
Given the social function of imitation, alongside the need to imitate external models, we must also consider the need to be imitated, that is, the need for others to conform to the forms, norms and values adopted by the subject, a conformity necessary to enable cooperation. From this need to be imitated arises the individual’s intolerance, hostility and aggression toward those who choose imitation models other than their own, thus making cooperation impossible, only competition.
We can therefore say that conformity has two faces. On the one hand, the need to conform in order to cooperate; on the other hand, the need to fight those who do not want to conform, and consequently do not want to cooperate, but only compete, so it is seen as a threat to the community to which the individual belongs.
Learning narratives
Among the things that a human being is able to learn, and also to teach others, are narratives. These can be religious, esoteric, historical, scientific, or relate to folk wisdom about any aspect of practical life.
As Yuval Noah Harari teaches us, man’s cultural evolution has occurred primarily through his ability to invent and transmit, from generation to generation, narratives of various types (more or less realistic), and to share them collectively as a factor of social cohesion. This transmission is made possible by our ability to learn abstractions through language, especially at a young age, when critical skills are not yet developed and the child is unable to understand whether what he or she is being told is true or false, well-founded or unfounded. Once the narrative has been learned as an indispensable factor of social belonging, the adult has no reason to question it; on the contrary, he or she will have an unconscious fear of doing so. A fear that very few can overcome, because it carries the risk of exclusion from the community.
On the other hand, as Nietzsche said, man does not need truths to survive, but knowledge (no matter if true or false) that will help him survive and therefore allow him, first of all, to be integrated into a community.
Learning and psychotherapy
Both primate experiments and the observation of human behavior show that the ability to learn by imitation (or copying) of others’ gestures and expressions is inversely proportional to the subject’s age, that is, it is greater in the early years of life and tends to disappear in later life. This means that what has been learned becomes increasingly difficult to unlearn or modify over time. For example, it is very difficult for an adult to unlearn the accent with which he or she learned the mother tongue and learn that of a new language.
This fact is of particular relevance to psychotherapy, since it consists of a modification of certain learning (in terms of cognitive, emotional and motivational responses to certain stimuli) considered deleterious or inadequate for the satisfaction of one’s own and others’ needs. That is to say, psychotherapy should consist of learning new social automatisms that must replace some of the old ones.
A psychotherapy is in fact like learning to play correctly, by reading the notes, a musical instrument after playing it poorly by ear for years. It starts with theory, reading the notes, and then it takes a lot of repetition, a lot of rehearsal, until old bad habits are unlearned and playing well becomes automatic.
Another problem is that learning normally happens by accumulation on the structural basis of previous learning. Therefore, it is difficult to learn something that is not consistent with already formed mental structures, just as it is very difficult, as well as traumatic, to change the foundational structures of a mindset.
Reward learning
As children, we almost all underwent what I call reward imprinting, that is, we learned what behaviors of ours bring us pleasure and what bring us pain, especially with regard to affection and approval from others (starting with parents and educators).
For example, those who have undergone a strict upbringing in a disciplinary sense tend to regard obedience as a source of social reward. Similarly, those who have had very intellectually demanding educators tend to regard intelligence and its manifestations as indispensable means of being accepted and loved. The same phenomenon occurs with other educational styles that give importance, for example, to morality, respect for traditions, religion, sports, beauty, money, competition in general, savings, etc., so that permanent associations (conscious or unconscious) can be created between such values and the expectation of social reward.
Of course, as adults it is possible that the expected rewards may not be realized, or the results of one’s efforts may be counterproductive. This can result in a state of chronic stress and frustration with related psychological and psychosomatic discomfort and disorders.
In such a case, psychotherapy aimed at neutralizing maladaptive or unrealistic imprints may be useful. During such therapy, the patient should learn, through interaction with the therapist, alternative ways of obtaining social rewards, and be able to unlearn (this is the most difficult part) inappropriate associations.
Next chapter: Identity and social qualities (being = belonging = imitating).