From whatever side one approaches things, the ultimate problem turns
out in the final analysis to be that of distinction: distinctions between the real and
the imaginary, between waking and sleeping, between ignorance and knowledge,
etc. - all of them, in short, distinctions in which valid consideration must
demonstrate a keen awareness and the demand for resolution. Among distinctions,
there is assuredly none more clear-cut than that between the organism
and its surroundings; at least there is none in which the tangible experience of
separation is more immediate. So it is worthwhile to observe the phenomenon
with particular attention and, within the phenomenon, what is even more
necessary, given the present state of our knowledge, is to consider its condition
as pathology (the word here having only a statistical meaning)-i.e., all the
facts that come under the heading of mimicry.