ABSTRACT
This chapter provides some of the many efforts made to build a concept of the self based on empirical data. It discusses the relation of the self to the ego and suggests ways in which the concepts developed can be used to elucidate analytic practice. The ego is phenomenologically identical with the self and, since the self is a union of conscious and unconscious components, the ego must be made up of these two elements also. C. G. Jung demonstrated a synthetic process in the personality reflected in symbolic forms: he described his method clearly and demonstrated his results, but his account of the relation between personal and archetypal experience is unclear or lacking. The syntonic countertransference depends on the self boundaries dissolving without the ego disintegrating; then deintegration will be followed by integration. The ego, distinguished from the self, is enriched and strengthened in the process without its boundaries being seriously disturbed.
