By BOB FUSELIER
Los Alamos

This is the third of a 3-part series on the Seeking emotional system. The previous two columns introduced the science behind Jaak Panksepp’s Seeking emotional system and the role that mimetic desire plays in societies and religions. Today Dr. Fuselier will present, through the perspective of mimetic desire, a religious decree of which we’re all familiar.

From what I understand today, the first and last of ancient Hebrew teachings are tied together. In the case of the Ten Commandments, this would suggest that the first set of directives and the last were closely connected and very important for the ancient Hebrew people. According to the anthropologist and philosopher Rene Girard, this connection becomes even more apparent when you view the Ten Commandments through the perspective of what he called mimetic desire, the imitation of the desires of others.

Thus, a hybrid Hebraic-Girardian view of the Big Ten would see three sets of directives. The first set contains more or less three commandments: 1- follow only the one God (the God of compassion), 2- set some time aside away from worldly things (one’s attachments to the desires of the world) to focus on the Divine, and 3- don’t call on God to join you in your hatred through condemnation of your enemies. The last set of commandments warns against coveting anything of your neighbors. It appears that the author of this ancient Hebrew teaching is recommending that we focus on a higher, non-biological potential and avoid one thing in particular that comes natural to us, imitating the desire for what others possess.

The commandments sandwiched in between are simply prohibitions against what we do when we fall victim to our covetous potential: we murder, we steal spouses, we steal things, and we lie to cover it all up and to hide our covetous intentions. But what about that other one, the commandment about honoring your father and mother? Doesn’t parental love and respect come naturally?

Maybe, but I think not as naturally as does mimetic desire. As young children, we see our parents as god-like. They are our providers and role models. But, as we hit the teenage years, we begin to see them as rivals as we fight for the right to be right and the right to do what we choose. We have this commandment because of the problems that arose when our younger ancestors fell prey to coveting their parents’ position and status. Unfortunately, humanity never outgrew the tendency to become rivals with either our parents or with each other whenever we see them as possessing what we want.

Rene Girard’s study of anthropology led him to see that all societies tried their best to deal with the effects of mimetic desire, but none recognized the cause for what it is: the desire of another person’s desire. The ancient Hebrew people seemed to come close, but they never fully identified covetous behavior as simply desiring what another desires.

For Christians, it should be more obvious, but it isn’t. If it was, the meaning of some of the last words attributed to the crucified Jew we know today as Jesus would be crystal clear: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” He was referencing both the authorities and the crowd who were looking for a sacrificial victim to ease the divisions that had arisen from their desires to have what they thought the other either had or wanted, which at that moment in time was freedom and security.

Two thousand years later, we still rarely recognize and/or understand the source of the major consequences that follow when we begin to desire what someone else has. It’s an interesting but humbling revelation to see that the majority of our society’s turmoil has its start from an emotional system we sense as desire. We can’t survive without a healthy Seeking emotional system. But we can’t have a life of true freedom and expect societal stability until we recognize our attachment to the extremely pleasurable state of mind it produces, especially when we get caught in the trap of desiring what others possess.

Next week, something on the lighter side: the emotional system through which we laugh and play.