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If we take the gift to be the third paradigm between individualism and holism, rethinking the gift in the global age first of all means rethinking both individualism and holism in order to underline their (pathological) transformations produced by globalisation. Individualism can no longer (only) be defined using the utilitarian model of the homo oeconomicus - rational and far-sighted, utilitarian and predetermining - peculiar to early modernity. Instead, it takes on an entropic and narcissistic connotation which can be summed up using the exemplars of the spectator (insecurity, impotence) and the consumer (unlimitedness, passivity). Holism takes on the unprecedented form of communitarianism, which mainly assumes tribal, destructive and exclusive configurations based on the opposition between Us and Them. Hence we see a split between Self (insecurity, unlimitedness, atomism, indifference) and Us (closedness, ghettoisation, violence) ; between a lack and an excess of bonding (and pathos). The gift can be seen as a concrete and symbolic event permitting the split to be healed : the gift-giving subject responds to the twofold pathology of individualism and communitarianism (Self/Us-obsession) through the one-on-one relationship, reinstating the social bond with awareness of his own vulnerability and respect for the other’s singularity.