On knowing oneself directly and through others

For certain patients, the experience of self lacks solidity and conviction. These patients appear to be unable to know themselves directly and turn to others in their environment and in fantasy in order to discover or confirm a vision of themselves. The author argues that we can come to understand these patients' shadowy sense of self by looking at direct self-knowledge and knowledge of the self that is acquired through others as two storylines. Detailed clinical material from the analysis of a woman who came to analysis feeling shadowy and insubstantial illustrates the value of attention to both storylines and to the changing relationship between them.