Empty (narcissistic), false, or fragmented: disorders of the self in late modernity

The self may be defined as the organising centre of consciousness and affect regulation (Cortright, 2007), or as an “internally organized cluster of attitudes, expectations, meanings, and feelings” (Siegel, 2012, p. 210). The healthy adult self is characterised by cohesion, vitality, and functional harmony (Kohut & Wolf, 1986), and has the integrated functions of: body regulation, attuned communication, emotional balance, fear modulation, response flexibility, insight, empathy, morality, and intuition (Siegel, 2010).