When the Self Becomes Alien to Itself: Psychopathology and the Self Recursive Loop

Abstract

The concept of self is an elusive thing, always one step ahead of attempts to capture it and bring it down to earth. One working definition of self I have used is: “The self can be defined as that psychic structure that comes into being with the enigmatic process of self-reflection—that is, the self as simultaneously both subject and object.”¹ How I have struggled with such a definition! It seems not right to have a proposition that includes the same term on both parts of the equation, that is, a definition that in circular fashion uses itself to define itself. Perhaps, perplexed by enigma, I have merely compounded the problem.

“What an abyss of uncertainty, whenever the mind feels overtaken by itself; when it, the seeker, is at the same time the dark region through which it must go seeking…” M. Proust, Rememberence of Things Past, p. 49