Every Hero Needs a Villain: Conflict as Dramatic and Mimetic

Psychologist Stephen Karpman argued that people in interpersonal conflicts tend to perform roles: the Persecutor, the Victim, and the Rescuer. This threefold framework structures interactions and simplifies the conflict, often making conflict resolution more difficult. Karpman modeled this "Drama Triangle" on cinematic and theatrical roles, and we can see the resonances between real-world conflict behavior and the depictions of heroes, villains, and innocent would-be victims in popular media. Writing concurrently with Karpman, René Girard made a similar argument about how would-be heroes and villains are locked in relationships of opposition and dependence. This way of framing conflict pervades popular film, and by putting Girard, film studies, and conflict psychology into conversation, we get a clearer picture on the power that the hero-villain-victim picture has over our moral imaginations. The tradition of Christian nonviolence offers a non-heroic approach to ethics in situations of conflict.