David Gornoski Shows

In this Things Hidden conversation, David Gornoski and Shannon Braswell are joined by Jean-Michel Oughourlian, psychologist and author of 'The Mimetic Brain.' Oughourlian starts the discussion with an insider's perspective as Girard's collaborator and how he found breakthroughs in the field of psychotherapy upon studying mimetic theory. "The mirror neuron is something fantastic," Oughourlian remarks, "because if you experiment, if you put a CT scan or PET scan on your own head and mine, and I'm drinking a glass of water, and you are on the other side of the Atlantic just looking at me, in both our brains the same regions will be activated the same way. In other words, whether I do the action or whether you look at it, the brain functions the same way--it mirrors what I'm doing." How does this discovery relate to the right and left-hemisphere brain study by Iain McGilchrist? How has mimetic theory helped Jean-Michel Oughourlian in the field of psychotheraphy? "What I try to do when I see a patient is not so mu