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William James's insight into the dual nature of self (as both object and subject, “me” and “I”) provides the starting point for Irene Fast's theory of self organization. The theory centers around Fast's conception of the “I-self,” an entity structured from interaction schemes (following Piaget's usage). The essence of I-self is “selving”: The dynamic self is what it does. By comparing selving with related streams of psychoanalytic thought, Fast aims to contribute to the proliferation of theories and part-theories in the development of a relational framework for psychoanalysis.
In three introductory chapters, Fast describes inadequacies in earlier psychoanalytic conceptions of self, develops her own, and defines its basic structures and its ways of making meaning. She then deals with the development of the I-self in the first 2 years of life, when I-schemes are global and unaccompanied by a subjective sense of I-ness. She goes on to treat the post-2-year-old's construction, respectively, of an inner world and an external world. Ending each chapter with a summary and a connection to the next, Fast concludes with an overview of the range of characteristics of the dynamic I-self.
The dynamic I-self includes what traditional theory would consider the several ego functions, which develop, Fast says, through relational interactions. The functions (or actions) of the self are the self. The I-self comprises the dynamic processes of the mind. The id and the ego of traditional theory are each aspects of I-self, with agency (purposiveness) its