I See Satan Fall Like Lightning, by René Girard.

Girard was a professor at Stanford and writes about the idea of 'mimetic desire'. His overarching idea is humans are fundamentally creatures of mimesis, and whether we realize it or not all our desires are born out of mimic the desires of those around us. We don't think critically about what we actually want, we just sub-consciously mimic each other's desires - which ultimately leads to conflict.

[West World Spoiler coming]

Reading his book, and theory on mimetic desire, felt like when Bernard realizes he's a host in West World https://www.amazon.com/See-Satan-Fall-Like-Lightning/dp/1570...

Girard was an important scholar of mimetic rivalry, sacrifice, and violence in the ancient world. For a great place to start, I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/See-Satan-Fall-Like-Lightning/dp/15707...