Wanting has layers

Beneath the simple linear want something, and get something, are layers.

Girard’s theory of mimetic desire claims that people desire things because others do. And then there are more ideas about mimetic conflict with similar people.

Then there is the insight that people don’t really want an object, but they want the wanting.

“One of the great insights of psychoanalysis is that you never really want an object, you only want the wanting, which means the solution is to set your sights on an impossible ideal and work hard to reach it. You won’t. That’s not just okay, that’s the point. It’s ok if you fantasize about knowing kung fu if you then try to actually learn kung fu, eventually you will understand you can never really know kung fu, and then you will die. And it will have been worth it.” – The Last Psychiatrist, Dove Sketches Beauty Scam