Isham attempts to clarify the relation between the psychologic concept of imitation and the psychiatric concept of identification. Imitation, 'the social particular of the universal law of repetition', explains the spread of social beliefs and institutions and insures cultural uniformity. Imitation may be conditioned (not instinctual) or mimetic (possibly instinctual); other types also occur. Identification involves emotional ties but is not itself an emotional tie, nor is it a regressive phenomenon. Introjection may play a part in both processes. Imitation may be conscious copying, identification unconscious copying, the object copied being in some manner identical with the self. Isham believes the psychologist's tendency to slight the ego and the unconscious limits the value of his orientation. The analyst, on the other hand, 'muddles together' various phenomena into a fuzzy concept of identification. Each specialist is insufficiently aware of the other's contribution.