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JUNG's writings are so extensive that it is easy to overlook important contributions on any particular topic. Therefore in this research the indexes in the Collected Works have been used to sample and extract passages on the self. These were recorded on cards and then indexed alphabetically under subject headings. Thus the tendency to select quotations and distort summaries to suit the writer's convenience was, if not eradicated, at least kept in check. Further, by using this sampling technique it was possible to decide what Jung said once and what repeatedly, to which statements he gave weight and which were intuitions thrown out in passing. The method was found to have yet another advantage: it became easier to notice when different formulations were the result of a major or minor change in his views.
It is claimed that what is recorded in the present paper gives the main trends in Jung's developing concepts of the self. The study of them proves conclusively that two mutually incompatible definitions have appeared which will be discussed with the aim of resolving the contradiction. It will be shown by analysing Jung's observations and theories that a solution is possible.
The material collected will be organized by classifying it under the two headings: “Clinical observations” and “Theory” (“comparative material” is taken to be the equivalent of observation). This apparently simple and classical division needs discussion, since it is doubtful whether Jung would have agreed that he had developed a theory of the self. In The Undiscovered Self (1957), for instance, when he considers the relation between statistical abstraction and individual facts, he says: “Since self-knowledge is a matter