The notion of the self is not so much an illusion as it is a “cultural construction.” The self refers to a set of implicit cultural values that we adhere to and use to guide our lives. These values are reflections of specific sociocultural practices in which we exist and that we learn in everyday interaction from the earliest age. These values not only inform our development, they provide the practice of psychoanalysis and psychology with a set of norms about what human life should ideally look like. As with other central concepts, the notion of the self is a product of a specific time and place. It is a culturally specific term, and refers to a set of norms and assumptions about our contemporary life. I conclude that the notion of the self forms an intractable part of Western, and particularly Anglo-American, culture and is produced by a particular kind of social and cultural practice that is specific to time and place. The self is one interpretation of being human among others.