pharmakos (scapegoat); pharmakon (poison and remedy)
The group attributes both the earlier chaos and the restored peace to the victim, who thus appears as poison and cure at once.
In lecture order, as Marci Shore presents each view. The time opens that minute of the lecture on YouTube.
Double transference: the one victim is held responsible both for the disorder before the killing and for the peace after it, the pharmakos, poison and remedy in one.
Put simply Girard: the crowd blames the same victim both for the chaos before the killing and for the peace after it. He calls this "double transference". The victim becomes the "pharmakos", at once poison and cure.
The victim, though chosen largely arbitrarily, acquires mystical potency through double transference; it merges into what Girard calls the Sacred, taking a godlike role.
Put simply Girard: though picked almost at random, the victim gains a mysterious power, because the crowd credits it with both the chaos and the peace. It merges into what Girard calls "the Sacred" and takes on a godlike role.
Double transference, for Hamerton-Kelly, is the mob misreading its causes: rivalry made the disorder, convergence against the victim made the peace; the victim was catalyst or passive object, never cause.
Put simply Hamerton-Kelly: the crowd misreads its causes. Its own rivalry caused the chaos, and its uniting against the victim caused the peace. The victim was at most a trigger or a passive target, never the cause.
2 links between claims that both use the term. Each shows the earlier claim, then the later one that answers it. “Our inference” marks a link Shore does not state outright.
GirardDouble transference: the one victim is held responsible both for the disorder before the killing and for the peace after it, the pharmakos, poison and remedy in one. L20 · 41:17
Hamerton-KellyDouble transference, for Hamerton-Kelly, is the mob misreading its causes: rivalry made the disorder, convergence against the victim made the peace; the victim was catalyst or passive object, never cause. L20 · 42:33
Glosses the double transference as a collective misidentification of the real cause of disorder and peace.
GirardDouble transference: the one victim is held responsible both for the disorder before the killing and for the peace after it, the pharmakos, poison and remedy in one. L20 · 41:17
GirardThe victim, though chosen largely arbitrarily, acquires mystical potency through double transference; it merges into what Girard calls the Sacred, taking a godlike role. L20 · 41:54
The double attribution to the victim is what lifts him into the Sacred.
Terms that appear in the same claims.