Apparently, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
It depends on what you’re flattered by, I guess.
Flattery is subjective; it ultimately comes down to the person being imitated and how they feel about it. Some people might take it as a compliment, while other people might find it very strange. Me personally? I find imitation deeply unsettling, but let's not confuse it with inspiration.
To give a better idea of what I'm talking about when I say imitation, if you're familiar with Ariana Grande and Paige Niemann, that situation is a classic example of what catches my attention when it comes to imitation. I don't know either of them well enough, or know enough about the situation, to make any claims about jealousy. But nonetheless, Paige is presenting an extreme form of imitation, and it makes me want to understand what may be happening in the mind of someone who does this.
This essay examines the Imitator archetype through the lens of jealousy and is divided into two parts. In Part I, I'll be analyzing the Imitator archetype, breaking down the process behind the Imitator and the way jealousy, imitation, and dehumanization connect to one another and eventually form the elimination pathway. Part II moves into the movie analysis of Jawbreaker (1999), where I apply the framework to the characters and examine the different ways imitation, dehumanization, victimization, and elimination appear throughout the film.
Part I: The Imitator
The Imitator experiences another person’s identity as both threatening and desirable. They become preoccupied with the other person’s qualities and begin absorbing parts of their identity. The Imitator attempts to reduce the distance between themselves and the person they feel threatened by by becoming more like them. Doing so provides temporary access to the quality that originally activated their feelings of inadequacy because it creates the illusion that they aren’t that far from the person after all. It allows them to think, “we’re on the same level.” Instead of developing an independent relationship with the desired trait, they begin constructing an identity out of pieces taken from the person they’re jealous of. The imitation can coexist with criticism because the person needs to deny the admiration driving the behavior.
(Excerpt from Psychological Progressions of Jealousy Into Pathological Behavior)
Forms of Imitation
Imitation can take different forms. The Imitator can imitate:
physical attributes
appearance/style
mannerisms
language
interests
hobbies
goals
relationships
positions
lifestyles
personas
personalities
confidence
social status
other qualities or symbols
Imitators don't usually start off with the idea that they're going to copy someone's entire identity or personality. Most times, I've noticed, it starts with one particular quality, circumstance, or prominent feature that they see in the other person and begin to desire for themselves. Through imitation, they start trying to obtain or embody that particular thing. Then other forms of imitation can develop as a way of getting closer to that original quality or feeling.
Example of an Imitator
Jessica longs to experience love. Desperate to feel desired and determined to find her Prince Charming, she looks up to her close friend Judy, who, in Jessica’s eyes, seems to have the kind of life anyone could dream of.
Judy is an eloquent, beautiful woman who regularly attends church, teaches in the ministry, and is married to James. James loves Judy, and everyone knows it. He’s the pastor at their church, and together, they embody the kind of love and life Jessica longs for. Judy has her little quirks that make her who she is. She loves her balayage clip-ins, always wears her signature blush pink oval nails, and has a very polished way of putting herself together. Judy is deeply loved. She’s beautiful, God-fearing, married, and admired.
Jessica knows Judy well because they became close friends after Jessica started her own walk in faith. What Judy doesn't know is that Jessica actually started her walk in faith because of her.
Since Jessica believes she has a deep desire to be married, and Judy already has the kind of marriage Jessica wants, Judy becomes a reference point for Jessica. She’s no longer just a friend. Jessica starts looking at Judy’s life to understand what she believes she wants for herself.
At first, this can look like inspiration. Jessica starts going to church more. What's wrong with that? She becomes more involved in the ministry. Hallelujah! She starts wearing her hair differently. Balayage? Okay, maybe she likes balayage clip-ins too. It’s not like Judy owns the color balayage, right? Then Jessica starts wearing blush pink square nails. “Trying something new,” she says. Cute…
None of these things are automatically strange from a healthy perspective. People can change their style, develop their faith, and even become similar to their friends. Friends can have similar qualities and absolutely can be inspired by one another. This shouldn't be considered “imitation” as long as you're staying true to yourself and you're secure within the friendship.
But with the Imitator, they aren't secure in the friendship or in themselves.
Jessica believes she’s “developing herself” in hopes of getting her Prince Charming, but she isn't developing a clearer sense of who she really is. She believes these changes will bring her closer to the life she sees in Judy.
Reference Point
The Imitator's desire is connected to something they first observed in someone else. Jessica sees Judy with a husband, a strong faith, a polished appearance, and a life that appears fulfilling. Those things become connected in Jessica’s mind to the kind of life she wants.
That connection also ties into Jessica’s sense of inadequacy. She sees Judy as “high” and herself as “low.” I’ll explain more about this gap later, but Jessica begins projecting her inadequacy onto Judy because Judy represents something Jessica believes she doesn't have.
Jessica also isn't stopping to figure out what she actually wants beneath the image of marriage. Why do I say Jessica thinks she wants a husband? Because what she sees when she looks at Judy could represent many different things. Maybe she wants love. Maybe she wants companionship. Maybe she wants security or stability. Maybe she envies Judy’s confidence, the way she carries herself, or how comfortable she seems being who she is. If Jessica is struggling financially, she might even look at the stability Judy has through her marriage and begin associating marriage with the security she wants.
The problem is that Jessica isn't sitting with any of those questions. Instead, she starts morphing herself under the belief that this is what she needs to do to get what Judy has. The imitation gives her something tangible to pursue. She can change her hair, change her nails, become more involved in church, and adopt aspects of Judy’s appearance, behavior, and lifestyle. Each change feels like she’s getting closer.
When you don't know yourself, you start looking outside of yourself for the answer to who you're supposed to be. Jessica isn't finding herself through this process. She's constructing a sense of self out of pieces of Judy. Those pieces become familiar through repetition, and eventually Jessica can start experiencing them as though they belong to her independently.
Judy is still the person Jessica first looked toward when trying to understand what she wanted. She is the standard Jessica measures herself against, whether she's consciously studying Judy or unconsciously picking up her traits without realizing it.
The Process of the Imitator Into the Elimination Pathway
Distorted Reality
Within the process of imitation, the Imitator begins operating within a distorted reality shaped by a weak self-concept and repeated jealous behaviors. The Imitator perceives the person they’re jealous of as being “high,” while emotionally, whether they acknowledge it or not, experiencing themselves as being “low.” They don't always consciously acknowledge that they feel below this person. The emotional experience of the position, however, is still being felt heavily.
The other person represents a position that the Imitator believes they don't occupy, creating a gap between how they experience themselves and how they perceive the other person. The Imitator's repeated focus on that person reinforces this perception. They observe them, study their life, gather information about their relationships, interests, behaviors, and other qualities, and continue measuring themselves against what they see.
When an Imitator repeats jealous behaviors, they’re trying to close the gap, believing that imitation will do so. The gap comes from an inadequate sense of self, but the Imitator experiences it through the other person. Their own sense of emptiness becomes attached to that person, who begins to represent what the Imitator believes is missing from them.
This is where their reality becomes distorted. The Imitator starts treating the other person as the source of the gap and the reason they feel it, rather than recognizing that the gap comes from within themselves. The person they’re jealous of becomes associated with the very inadequacy the Imitator is experiencing.
As imitation becomes familiar, the behaviors themselves can begin to feel natural. The Imitator becomes accustomed to performing qualities associated with the other person, and the line between copying something and identifying with it starts to blur. Their imitation eventually becomes part of how they understand themselves.
Entitlement
Once the Imitator feels that they have reached a certain point in the imitation process, they begin to expect the things they associate with the person they’re jealous of. They expect the opportunities, attention, relationships, status, recognition, and confidence they believe should come with becoming more like that person.
Those things don't come simply from imitation. The Imitator can become more similar to the other person without gaining the internal sense of self or the position they expected. They’ve changed aspects of themselves, yet the feeling of inadequacy still remains.
Imitation was supposed to close the gap, but it didn’t. The Imitator begins to feel that because they’ve put in the work to become like the other person, they should now receive what the person receives. They don't understand why they still feel inadequate; they only experience the frustration of not having what they believe they should have.
Competition
Competition has existed silently in the background of the imitation process from the beginning. Eventually, that competitive energy moves to the forefront of the Imitator's mind. They become more aware of the comparison and begin consciously thinking about proving themselves against the person they’re jealous of.
The Imitator begins trying to prove that they can do what the other person does, and ultimately occupy the position they admire from a distance. The person they’re jealous of has now become an opponent.
The competition within the Imitator pathway can be silent, especially when the Imitator and the person they’re jealous of are close. Unlike the Competitor archetype, whose behavior is centered around openly competing, the Imitator can compete while still appearing to be a friend, supporter, or admirer. They can compare themselves, try to one-up the other person, or position themselves against them without openly acknowledging that a competition exists.
This makes the behavior difficult to recognize because the person being competed against may not even realize that they’re in a competition.
Dehumanization
Dehumanization develops alongside the Imitator's progression through the pathway. It doesn't suddenly appear at the point of elimination. It begins much earlier, when the person they’re jealous of becomes a reference point and a symbol.
The Imitator is no longer experiencing that person as a whole human being with their own thoughts, emotions, vulnerabilities, and life. They represent something specific. They represent the relationship, position, appearance, confidence, lifestyle, or qualities the Imitator believes they lack. Once the person becomes a symbol, the Imitator begins relating to them through what they represent rather than who they are.
The Imitator can start becoming indifferent to the person’s suffering, or even feel satisfied by it, because they no longer see them as a human being. Putting them on a pedestal is what makes this emotional detachment possible. The Imitator can look at someone as extraordinary, admire everything they have, and still feel like their suffering doesn't matter or that it's deserved in some way. It’s almost as if the Imitator has mythologized the person they’re jealous of.
By this point, the Imitator has moved from observing and imitating the target to feeling entitled to what they have, competing with them, and reducing them to an obstacle rather than a human being.
Audacity and Participating in Harm
Within this model, the Imitator can begin acting on the entitlement and one-sided competition that has developed in their mind. The behavior can look different depending on the situation, but the underlying change is that the Imitator has become willing to interfere with the person they perceive as a threat.
At this stage, the harmful behavior doesn't necessarily involve an intention to kill. Elimination isn't the first thought that comes to mind. The Imitator can participate in criticism, sabotage, diminishing, or other forms of interference because the person has become something they feel entitled to overcome.
Within the Imitator’s distorted reality, imitation is still tied to the original desire. They’ve become so invested in becoming like the other person that they begin believing they could have what that person has and embody it better. Eventually, simply imitating the person isn't enough. The person themselves can begin to feel like a physical obstacle between the Imitator and what they desire. Their presence starts to feel like a problem that needs to be dealt with.
This is where the pathway can move toward elimination.
Elimination
Elimination is the most extreme form of harm. Elimination involves the objective of removing the person as a threat by killing them. The Imitator can deliberately intend for the target to die, or they can create or participate in circumstances where they don't mind if the target dies.
There are two forms of elimination: direct elimination and indirect elimination.
Direct Elimination
Direct elimination involves an intention to kill, a plan, and an attempt to carry it out. The Imitator can carry out the act themselves or plan with other people to kill the target. The defining factor is active participation in the attempt to cause the person's death.
Example: Jessica deliberately hires another person to kill Judy. She gives the person information about where Judy will be, helps plan when the killing will take place, and arranges for the other person to carry it out.
Indirect Elimination
Indirect elimination involves creating or participating in circumstances that place the person in a dangerous situation where they could be killed, while strongly desiring for that outcome to occur. The Imitator does not directly attempt to kill the person. Instead, they create or contribute to conditions that could lead to the person's death and allow those circumstances to produce the elimination.
Example: Jessica invites Judy over for dinner. She knows that Judy has a severe allergy to anchovies. The anchovies are discreetly included in an appetizer, and instead of warning Judy or offering her something else, Jessica deliberately allows her to eat it because she wants the allergic reaction to result in her death.
The difference between the two forms is how the plan is executed. Both involve the desire and intention necessary for elimination. Direct elimination involves a concrete attempt to kill the opponent, while indirect elimination involves creating or allowing circumstances that are expected to result in the opponent's death.
The Foundational Victim Position
The foundational victim position that I discuss in my Pathological Jealousy essay is the position that all of the archetypes, including the Imitator, are built on. It’s rooted in the jealous person's self-esteem and self-concept. They don't have to consciously acknowledge themselves as a victim for the position to exist. Their feelings and actions reveal an internal sense that they are a victim. Internal victimhood can then lean into entitlement, justification, and self-serving behavior.
Within the Imitator archetype, this position becomes visible when they enter the entitlement stage and begin experiencing the gap as frustration between themselves and the person they're jealous of.
Because the Imitator doesn't fully conceptualize their own role in what they're doing or what is driving it, that frustration starts becoming associated with the other person. As that frustration builds, they start interpreting the other person's ordinary behaviors through their own distorted perception, assigning meaning to them that often has negative connotations. This reinforces their sense of victimhood.
Their frustration and insecurity get projected onto the other person, and the Imitator begins to see themselves as the one who’s being affected by them.
Part II: Jawbreaker Movie Analysis
Jawbreaker (1999), written and directed by Darren Stein, follows four teenage girls and the aftermath of a birthday prank that results in the “accidental” death of their friend, Liz Purr. The film centers around the girls attempts to deal with Liz's death while maintaining their social positions and protecting themselves from the consequences of what happened. In this analysis, I examine the pathological behaviors that occur throughout the film, particularly those connected to jealousy, imitation, innocence, dehumanization, and victimization.
Opening Scene
The film opens on the morning of Liz Purr’s birthday.
Transcription of opening scene:
“That was Liz Purr. She was special. Everybody loved Liz. Not just because she was beautiful and popular. And, rich, and smart. She was all of those things, but more than anything, she was sweet. Courtney ruled with terror, but Liz, Liz ruled with kindness. She was like the Princess Di of Reagan High, and that pissed Courtney off. Liz Purr was just... well, she was perfect. I used to dream about what it would be like to be her. Elizabeth Purr. It's a shame about what happened to Liz. That was no way to wake up on your 17th birthday.” (Jawbreaker, 1999)
The scene then cuts to a group of masked people dressed in all black, entering Liz’s bedroom, putting a huge jawbreaker in her mouth, taping her mouth shut, tying her feet up with rope, forcibly picking her up and carrying her outside, and placing her in the trunk of a car as Liz screams (muffled) in terror.
We later find out that the people behind the masks are Liz’s friends and that this is an annual birthday prank. After that terrifying opening scene of Liz’s kidnapping prank, the girls are seen riding in Courtney’s convertible, top down, totally geeked over this prank that they just pulled on their bestfriend. But when they pull over and open the trunk—expecting to take a picture and surprise the birthday girl—they discover the jawbreaker is stuck in Liz’s throat, and Liz is dead.
Performance of Innocence
“It was supposed to be for fun…I thought a jawbreaker would be funny.” — Courtney
The performance of innocence occurs when someone acting from pathological jealousy participates in harm. It’s how they position themselves within the situation and maintain their innocence after participating in harmful behavior. They maintain an internal and outward position of innocence to preserve their sense of morality while avoiding accountability for their participation. They explain and justify their behavior in a way that allows them to acknowledge what happened without fully identifying themselves with the harm.
The Split
Someone acting from pathological jealousy can hold two conflicting ideas at the same time. They know they participated in what happened, but they don't see themselves as the kind of person who would intentionally cause that harm. This creates a split between the action and the identity. The behavior exists, the harm exists, their participation exists, but their sense of self remains separate from it. They can continue to see themselves as moral, innocent, or justified while participating in behavior that contradicts that identity.
In Jawbreaker, Courtney is an exaggerated example of this process. Keep in mind the film is a comedy, so her behavior is intentionally extreme. Courtney doesn't deny what she did, though. She reframes it. “It was supposed to be for fun. I thought a jawbreaker would be funny”. She acknowledges the action, but changes the meaning of the action.
Someone participating in harm can deny what they did or reframe it. Denial tries to completely separate the person from the action itself, while reframing allows the action to remain acknowledged while changing how that action is understood. Courtney reframes her participation through the context of the prank. She put the jawbreaker in Liz’s mouth, but she presents the act through what she intended it to be.
Pushing the Boundaries
The behavior usually starts within something that has already been accepted or normalized. When something is already considered normal within a particular environment, there is already a certain level of tolerance around it. People know what the behavior is and they've already accepted it within a certain context. From there, someone can push that behavior further without necessarily feeling like they have completely stepped outside of what was originally accepted.
The birthday prank in Jawbreaker already has a history. The girls are used to doing outrageous birthday pranks, so the idea of taking a prank too far isn't completely foreign to them. Courtney takes something they already consider normal and pushes it further. She pushes the limits of what they consider a prank, while still keeping what she's doing within that same context. In her mind, it's still a birthday prank. It's still supposed to be fun.
Courtney has already been given a context that tells her what she's doing is a prank, and she can fall back on and hold onto that context even after she's pushed the behavior far beyond what that boundary could reasonably justify.
Two Performances of Innocence
There are two ways this performance of innocence can present itself: defensive innocence and remorseful innocence.
Courtney demonstrates defensive innocence. She acknowledges her role in what happened, but uses the context surrounding her behavior to justify it. She did put the jawbreaker in Liz's mouth, but the prank had already been established as something the girls did for fun. The boundary had been pushed, but Courtney uses the original context to position what she did as something that was still supposed to be harmless. Her innocence is maintained through defensive justification.
Remorseful innocence takes a different approach. The person may acknowledge that they participated in some way, but they don't fully engage with the role they played in producing the harm. Instead, their response carries more of a sense of questioning and confusion. How could this have happened? The focus is on understanding the situation and expressing remorse over what happened rather than examining their own actions and the part they played in creating the circumstances that led to it.
For example, imagine an alternate version of Jawbreaker where Courtney displays remorseful innocence after Liz dies. Courtney might say: “I don't understand. How did this even happen? We were just trying to have fun! I didn’t think Liz was actually going to die…I can't believe she's gone. I keep thinking about that day and wondering how everything went so wrong. I feel horrible, I don't understand how we ended up here.”
Courtney isn't denying that she was there or that she participated in the prank. She acknowledges her involvement, but she isn't really confronting what her own actions contributed to Liz's death. Her attention is on the tragedy of what happened and how horrible she feels about it. The remorse becomes the focus, while her role in producing the harm remains unexamined. There’s no real accountability being taken here. Because other people were involved, she could also shift or share the blame with them, which gives her another way to avoid fully acknowledging her own role in what happened.
The difference between defensive innocence and remorseful innocence is in how the position of innocence is maintained. Defensive innocence relies on justification, while remorseful innocence relies on avoidance.
Victim Position Switched
Although the two positions look different, both produce the same shift in the victim position. Liz is the original victim; she’s the one who was harmed and killed. Yet after her death, the situation becomes about what happened to them, what they are going to do now, and how they are going to protect themselves from the consequences. The person who was actually harmed is moved out of the center of the situation, while the people who participated in the harm become the ones experiencing themselves as vulnerable, or in need of protection.
Posthumous Dehumanization
The dehumanization of Liz doesn't end when she dies. It continues through the way Courtney and the girls manipulate the story surrounding her death. Once they decide to make Liz's death look like a crime scene, they construct a different version of who Liz was. They use her character, her sexuality, and the circumstances surrounding her death to make her seem like someone who was involved in things that could explain why she ended up dead.
Dehumanization also happens by somebody changing the way other people see someone. Instead of allowing Liz to just be seen as the victim, they start attaching negative attributes to her. “She was a whore, she was always at the bar, she was this, she was that.” She was whatever they needed her to be in order to make the story believable.
They're creating a fake crime scene and curating a version of Liz that makes her death easier to accept. If people believe that Liz was involved in reckless or immoral behavior, then the circumstances surrounding her death don't feel as shocking. It almost creates the idea that she somehow put herself in that situation or that what happened to her was connected to the kind of person she supposedly was.
They make her appear less innocent to make themselves appear less responsible for their actions. Establishing that there was something wrong with Liz makes it easier to create distance between their actions and the harm they caused.
The unfortunate result is that Liz was eliminated twice: first through her physical death, and then through the manipulation of her character.
Courtney and Fern Imitator Types
Courtney
Courtney already occupies a high-status role within the group, which brings forth the frustration of the Imitator. The Imitator can feel as though they've already reached a certain point and should therefore have access to certain things, yet still feel inadequate when someone else represents something they want for themselves.
Courtney has status within the group, but Liz represents something ideal that Courtney measures herself against. Liz is the “teen dream.” Courtney is close to Liz, but she is also perceived differently by their peers. Their friendship has a competitive dynamic to it, even if that competition is one-sided and mostly unspoken.
Courtney has a direct view of Liz's life, her relationships, and the way people respond to her. She can see exactly what Liz represents, and that proximity gives Courtney a constant standard for comparison. When Liz is removed through elimination, Courtney sees an opportunity to renew her reputation by taking the place Liz leaves behind and becoming Prom Queen.
Fern
Fern represents a different expression of the Imitator. Her role in the harm isn't really about wanting to participate in what happened to Liz. It's more about what she's willing to give up within herself once the opportunity to enter Liz's world presents itself. Fern knows she's stepping into a situation that is wrong, but she still participates because she sees an opportunity to gain a sense of self within a world she has admired from the outside.
Fern was an admirer of Liz, who represented a certain identity, confidence, and social position that Fern wanted for herself. The opportunity to enter that social world carries meaning beyond simply becoming part of a popular group. She's stepping into something she has already attached meaning to through Liz.
There’s no direct competition between Fern and Liz, and Fern isn't the person who causes Liz's death. Her imitation shows up in her willingness to compromise what she knows is right when she is given an opportunity to move closer to what Liz represented. She participates in a spoiled situation because being included gives her a chance to feel like she belongs.
Fern's sense of self is still being developed through someone else. The opportunity to enter Liz's world gives her a way to temporarily experience that identity for herself.
It Will Never Work
Towards the end of the film, Courtney thinks she gets what she wants. Liz is gone, Courtney becomes prom queen, and she’s taken the social position that Liz once occupied. For a moment, it looks like it worked, but once it’s exposed that she’s the one who killed Liz, everyone hates her for it. Courtney realizes that she will never be Liz, and she realizes that Liz was deeply loved for who she actually was.
The ending really shows the limitation of the Imitator. It will never work. In hindsight, it can never be successful because the favorable outcome the Imitator wants from other people, the internal sense of self they desire so badly, simply cannot be obtained by becoming someone else. Courtney can take Liz's position, but she can't take the reason people loved Liz.
The Imitator can collect pieces from another person and eventually convince themselves that those pieces are their own, but a collection of borrowed pieces is not the same thing as a developed sense of self. The imitation eventually has to crumble because it was never built on the Imitator's own identity to begin with.
Courtney gets the crown, but who is Courtney without Liz? Who is Fern without the person she built her identity around? Who are they when there is no one else to measure themselves against?
As long as someone else remains the standard for who they should be, the Imitator can continue collecting pieces from other people without ever actually answering the question of who they are.
Thank you for reading :)
—Sibyl¹¹
꒷꒦♛❤︎