The Self in Crisis: Watching Mad Men and Homeland with Girard and Hegel

In this essay, I focus on a typical modern phenomenon: the crisis of the self. I approach the topic through an analysis of two popular American TV series: Mad Men and Homeland. I use Girard’s mimetic theory to argue that these two TV series represent, perhaps involuntarily, two different stages of the (mimetic) crisis of the self, related to external mediation and internal mediation respectively. This analysis paves the way for a discussion of the extent to which Girard’s mimetic theory is able to respond to the contemporary crisis of the self. As part of this discussion, I also consider Girard’s account of Hegel, arguing that Girard somehow misunderstands Hegel’s philosophy, and that Hegel’s idealistic conception of the self, if properly reconstructed, can fruitfully complement the mimetic theory in making sense of some aspects of the crisis of the self, which are represented by the two mentioned TV series.