Carl Jung: I therefore distinguish between the I and the self,
In 1921, Jung wrote concerning the self:
“But inasmuch as the I is only the centre of my field of consciousness, it is not identical with the totality of my psyche, being merely one complex among other complexes. I therefore distinguish between the I and the self, since the I is only the subject of my consciousness, while the self is the subject of my total psyche, which also includes the unconscious” (Psychological Types, CW 6, § 706).
In 1928, Jung described the process of individuation as “self-becoming” and “self-realization” (The Relations Between the I and the Unconscious, CW 7, § 266). Jung defined the self as the archetype of order and noted that representations of the self were indistinguishable from God-images (chapter 4 , “The self,” Alon, CW 9, pt. 2).
In 1944 he noted that he chose the term because this concept was “on the one hand definite enough to convey the sum of human wholeness and on the other hand indefinite enough to express the indescribable and indeterminate nature of this ·wholeness . … in scientific usage the ‘self’ refers neither to Christ nor to the Buddha but to the totality of the figures that are its equivalent, and each of these figures is a Symbol of the self” (Psychology and Alchemy}’, CW 12, § 20) .
~The Black Books, Vol. V, Page 239-240, fn 212
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