AIM Framework glossary
M-Capture
Canonical definition
M-Capture is the condition where an Individual's motivational profile is dominated by Mimetic Desire (wM \>\> wA + wI) to the degree that decision-making is substantially controlled by Status competition, rivalry dynamics, and socially transmitted wanting, with Confabulation preventing the Individual from recognising the dominance, such that the Individual sincerely experiences their M-driven choices as authentically motivated (A-grounded need or I-endorsed preference) while behavioural signatures (audience-dependence, non-satiation, model-tracking) indicate M-dominance.
Explanation
M-Capture is the individual-level analogue of what the Unifying Crisis Principle describes at population level. An M-Captured Individual is not evil or irrational, they are a normally functioning cognitive system in which Source Opacity and Confabulation have produced stable, self-reinforcing M-dominance that the Individual cannot recognise from the inside. Behavioural diagnostics distinguish M-Capture from high-M-but-aware states: the M-Captured Individual's engagement drops when the audience disappears (Gap Behaviour Test), escalates with rivalry rather than deepening with mastery, and produces insatiability despite objective success (Apex M-Dysfunction at its extreme). The concept is essential for leadership analysis because M-Captured leaders with institutional power can administratively impose crisis trajectories (Leadership Compression Principle). See Apex M-Dysfunction, Gap Behaviour Test, Leadership Compression Principle, Institutional Capture.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.
Derivation
Chapter 17, Section 17.17.4; Chapter 17, Section 17.7.4; Chapter 8, Section 8.12.5.