The Self-as-Object in Psychoanalysis

This paper focuses on one aspect of the theoretical construction of a psychoanalytic self-concept, cast in terms of a structural paradigm according to which the self-system is envisioned as a supraordinate organization, embracing the tripartite entities—id, ego, and superego—as substructural components. The aspect of the self system under consideration here is the self-as-object. The discussion centers on questions relevant to linguistic usage referring to the self-as-object, specifically the referential implications of the pronouns “I” and “me,” then examines various contexts of objective self-experience. These include the experience of the self as an external object, that is, of my experience of other selves as objects and their experience of me as object; the experience of viewing one's self in a mirror; the subjective experience of one's self as an internal object, including the role of self-representations in the psychic economy and their connection with the self-as-object; and, finally, the phenomenon of multiple selves found in multiple personality disorder and the implications for conceptualizing the self-as-object. These theoretical issues lead to some reflections regarding the clinical application and utility of these concepts to the analytic situation