The analysis of ressentiment shows that this emotion evolves from mimetic desire: it is an affective experience that people have when a rival denies them opportunities or valuable resources (including status) that they consider to be socially accessible.

This book has been written in response to Nietzsche's provocative question: Is society full of resentment? During the twentieth century, we witnessed veritable eruptions of this insidious evil, and we are still witnesses of its proliferation at the various levels of society. This book aims to explore, according to René Girard's mimetic theory, the anthropological and social assumptions that make up this emotion and to investigate its genesis.