A psychological study of the 'doppelgänger phenomenon' allows us to put forward the hypothesis that its starting point is a fixation on the 'mirror stage' (per Lacan), which has a very serious and still insufficiently studied significance. An experimental study of individuals engaged in imitation games showed that they performed the 'Draw-a-Person' test in an unusual way: during testing, a duplication of the depicted figures occurred. The authors of the article suggest that this finding may indicate the emergence of new forms of understanding reality in the history of culture.