ABSTRACT
In our everyday living in the world, an awareness of the way in which we are incorporated into collectives is important for us. Without such an awareness, we can become lost and remain unindividuated. Several mechanisms operate to facilitate the development of members of collectives into selves. If we can become familiar with those mechanisms, then our prospects for individuation and thus freedom are substantially increased. I have already outlined Plato's position with respect to mimesis or imitation and I have argued that Jung deploys mimesis in his discussion of identi®cation. Jung endorses the positive psychic effects that imitation as identi®cation can have but, as we saw, he realises that there are important limitations to its wholesale endorsement.
