> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.descentpress.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Self - URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/self/ - Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T20:19:20.000Z - Description: Self — Descent Press Index (entry forthcoming). - Author: Jae Botávn - Tags: #index, #Import 2026-09-04 23:45 1. Etymology **Self** in English names ones own person or identity (Old English *self*). Jung keeps the everyday word but capitalizes its technical weight: the **Self** (often lowercased in older translations as *self*) is not the everyday “I,” but the archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the whole psyche. Related forms: *self-realization*; *ego–self axis*; German *Selbst*. Distinct from ego (center of consciousness) and from [persona](https://www.descentpress.com/index/persona/) (social face). --- 1. Plain summary The **Self** is Jung’s name for the deep center and whole circle of the personality—more than the daytime “I,” and more than any single role. It is the pattern of wholeness that [individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/) circles toward. Think of a mandala, a god-image, or a dream figure that feels larger than ego yet intimately you.” The Self can initiate psychic life and also appear as a goal. It is not a church dogma in Jung’s claim—he calls it empiricalbut it rhymes with religious language because it touches destiny, authority, and totality. Ego is the center of consciousness; the Self is the center of the whole (conscious and unconscious together). **Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common Self-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jungs CW contains only these):** archetype of wholeness; regulating center transcending ego; totality of psychic phenomena; center and circumference; ego as center of consciousness vs Self as center of totality; transcendental / only partly empirical concept; [god-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/god-image/) similarity; destiny / authority in psychological life; Self as initiator and as goal; mandala as Self-image; Christ / Buddha / stone / child as symbolic carriers; ego–self axis; inflation when ego identifies with Self; relation to [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/) unknowability; [shadow](https://www.descentpress.com/index/shadow/) / [anima](https://www.descentpress.com/index/anima/)/[animus](https://www.descentpress.com/index/animus/) as figures on the way; [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/)es as parts within the whole; [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/) of Self onto leaders or doctrines; numinous experiences associated with Self. --- 1. Academic elucidation --- 1. Lexicon > Self. The archetype of wholeness and the regulating center of the psyche; a transpersonal power that transcends the ego. As an empirical concept, the self designates the whole range of psychic phenomena in man. … It is a transcendental concept, for it presupposes the existence of unconscious factors on empirical grounds and thus characterizes an entity that can be described only in part. > The self is not only the centre, but also the whole circumference which embraces both conscious and unconscious; it is the centre of this totality, just as the ego is the centre of consciousness. (Sharp, 1991, p. \[provisional — unverified\]) --- 1. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive > One of these concepts is the self. The entity so denoted is not meant to take the place of the one that has always been known as the ego, but includes it in a supraordinate concept. > I have suggested calling the total personality which, though present, cannot be fully known, the self. The ego is, by definition, subordinate to the self and is related to it like a part to the whole. (Jung, 1951/1959, CW 9ii, p. 5, 9) > … conscious and unconscious are not necessarily in opposition to one another, but complement one another to form a totality, which is the self. According to this definition the self is a quantity that is supraordinate to the conscious ego. (Jung, 1928/1966, CW 7, p. 243, ¶274) --- **See also:** [individuation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/individuation/); [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/); [archetype](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetype/); [persona](https://www.descentpress.com/index/persona/); [shadow](https://www.descentpress.com/index/shadow/); [anima](https://www.descentpress.com/index/anima/); [animus](https://www.descentpress.com/index/animus/); [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/); [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); [active imagination](https://www.descentpress.com/index/active-imagination/). [ego](https://www.descentpress.com/index/ego/). [god-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/god-image/). ## References Jung, C. G. (1959). Aion: Researches into the phenomenology of the self. *Collected works* Vol. 9ii. Jung, C. G. (1966). The relations between the ego and the unconscious. *Collected works* Vol. 7. Jung, C. G. (1971). Psychological types. *Collected works* Vol. 6. Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. ---