Who is the Self?

"The self is the subject matter that is both central yet paradoxically often conveniently assumed and or neglected in general psychology." This was how I opened the chapter on the self in the due to be published (May, 2025) text book, Evidence-Based Foundations of Existential-Humanistic Therapy. In short, I stated that"the self is a fluid, relational, dialectical, hermeneutical, transcendental, experiential process that is related, embedded, co-constituted and inseparable from others and other processes and contexts."

If you approached an understanding of your self in this manner, your ideas of diagnosis, and therapeutic growth may shift. I invite you to get to know your psyche as more than just a concrete, stable, patterned, individualistic, neuro-bio-chemical-physiological thing. As that does not get to the heart of the subject matter of psychology, that which involves the ontological nature of self.

Instead, may I suggest that you consider yourself globally and energetically as in Sanskrit's "to breathe"; Christianity's "breathing to life"; Liatin's Spirare or the root to"aspire"; the oriental's "Chi"; Greek's "Anima" and back to Sanskrit's soul, or "atmos", as in atmosphere.

As this perspective becomes more attuned, the work in therapy will take on a transpersonal dimension grounded in the here and now.

May all be liberated, fulfilled and happy,

Anne YJ Hsu, PhD