The post-Freudian era of consciousness is examined, wherein the individual is reconsidered from two viewpoints—narcissism and borderline states—via two seminal thinkers, Kohut and Kernberg. This is elaborated on through discussion of a “conflict” in Freud's work (i.e., the paradoxical conflicts in Freud between personal insight and natural science metaphors) and the utilization of paradigm shift and crisis in science. This continues in the dialectic concerning the theoretical and treatment styles of Kohut and Kernberg. The advantages, liabilities, and linguistic structures of both writers are studied in relation to their explorations of disturbances of the self.