Meissner first reviews the use of the concept of the self within psychoanalysis and then proposes a supraordinate framework for the concept which encompasses various meanings, functions, and structures attributed to the self. His review is wide- ranging and includes the subjective and phenomenological aspects of the experience of the self; philosophical perspectives on the substantiality, autonomy, and linguistic construction of the self; debates about whether the self is best conceived of in structural or representational terms; the self as related to concepts of identity, person, and ego. On the basis of this review, Meissner concludes that the concept of self achieves its greatest theoretical coherence and functional utility when broadly conceived