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The term ‘self’ is self-contradictory. No one's self is really his own. The ego as the self is externally introduced—it is all taken in from beyond the skin. So here is myself denying that it belongs to itself and affirming that it is really an alien presence…
Depersonalization, feelings of unreality, and derealization, are written about almost exclusively as manifestations of psychic pathology. The object of this paper is to present a manifestation of feelings of unreality which, except for brief passages† has not been specifically brought to attention in the literature: depersonalization which occurs during analysis as a signal and result of evolving health.
This condition is not merely interesting as phenomenology. It introduces crucial psychotherapeutic considerations. Because depersonalization is not a clearly defined phenomenon (Ackner, B. (1954); Cattell, J. P. (1966); Mayer-Gross, W. (1935); Roberts, W. W., (1960); and Shorvon, H. J. (1946)) and is almost consistently associated with serious pathology, especially schizophrenia, it becomes important to distinguish between feelings of unreality which manifest sickness and those which manifest the overcoming of sickness. Often at a time propitious for continued or increased psychotherapeutic movement, the clinical process is attenuated or sabotaged.