ABSTRACT
Identity is ultimately a question of foreground and background. It is a matter of defining the self against a given environment. The author juxtaposing two seminal texts on the relationship of the organism to its surroundings, "Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia," an essay on the behavior of mimetic insects by the French social theorist, Roger Caillois, and "The Mirror Stage," a later essay on the development of identity by the French psychoanalytic theorist, Jacques Lacan. The one exposes the danger of the loss of self that might be caused by an over-identification with the environment. The other describes the way in which identification with the environment overcomes the condition of alienation. Read in terms of the physical environment, the one describes the fear of being "engulfed" by place – topophobia. The other sets out the conditions for becoming attached to place – topophilia.
