Self Development, as a term of art within the depth-psychological corpus, occupies a contested space between ontogenetic necessity and teleological aspiration. It is not a single doctrine but a convergence of several distinct theoretical traditions. For Neumann, self-development traces its roots to the uroboric stage of childhood, positioning the earliest narcissistic autarchy as the indispensable precondition for all later self-formative work — what Jung called individuation in the second half of life. For Kohut, as Samuels explicates, the pathway runs through narcissistic development and the mirroring self-object, with positive self-development understood as the foundation of healthy object relations rather than their antithesis. The Taoist I Ching tradition, rendered by Liu I-ming and Thomas Cleary, frames self-development in explicitly ethical and sequential terms: one must complete one's own development before one can genuinely benefit others. Horney approaches the same territory from the neurotic side, arguing that self-realization demands the liberation of growth-forces from the distorting grip of the idealized self-image. Schore grounds these processes neurobiologically, locating the emergence of the self in affective regulation patterns established in the second year of life. Across these positions a core tension persists: whether self-development is primarily a maturational unfolding from within, a relational achievement shaped from without, or a consciously undertaken ethical discipline.
In the library
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The allegedly narcissistic, autistic, autoerotic, egocentric, and, as we saw, anthropocentric stage of the uroboros, so obvious in the child's autarchic and naïve self-relatedness, is the precondition of all subsequent self-development.
Neumann argues that the earliest uroboric stage of childhood, far from being a pathological fixation, constitutes the necessary developmental ground from which all later self-development — including Jungian individuation — must grow.
Neumann, Erich, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019thesis
This refers to completion of self-development and ability to develop others. ... When self-development is attained, that is like work on a well.
Liu I-ming presents self-development as a sequential ethical imperative: only upon its completion does one possess the surplus of virtue necessary to benefit others, an insufficiency in self-development being equivalent to a leaking vessel.
Having progressed to the top of the lower position, this is when one's own development is accomplished and one can thus develop others... This line refers to one whose self-development is fulfilled.
Cleary's rendering of the Well hexagram establishes self-development as a fulfillment condition, the attainment of which transforms one into a spiritual model capable of influencing others without exhaustion.
Thomas Cleary, Liu Yiming, The Taoist I Ching, 1986thesis
positive self-development leads to positive relations with others. Narcissistic development also has its own set of objects, called self-objects.
Samuels, explicating Kohut, contends that self-development proceeds along its own legitimate pathway and, contrary to classical suspicion of narcissism, generates the relational capacities it is often thought to preclude.
Samuels, Andrew, Jung and the Post-Jungians, 1985thesis
the ideal is the liberation and cultivation of the forces which lead to self-realization. I hope that this book, by a clearer exposition of the obstructing factors, may, in its own way, help toward such liberation.
Horney frames self-development as the liberation of innate growth-forces from neurotic obstruction, positioning the clarification of those obstructions as itself a contribution to the developmental project.
Horney, Karen, Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle Toward Self-Realization, 1950thesis
The core of the self lies in patterns of behavioral and affective regulation, which grant continuity to experience despite development and changes in context.
Schore, citing Sroufe, grounds the emergence of the self in affective regulatory patterning, positioning this neurobiological substrate as the foundation upon which all subsequent self-development rests.
Schore, Allan N., Affect Regulation and the Origin of the Self: The Neurobiology of Emotional Development, 1994thesis
The path of self-development presents us with necessary periods of isolation from others. Later the isolation ends and we are put to use by the Cosmos.
Anthony articulates the I Ching's view that self-development follows a rhythm of withdrawal and return, rejecting heroic or elitist spirituality in favour of humble, incremental attunement to Tao.
Carol K. Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988supporting
Benda's structural model demonstrates empirically that self-development is positively predicted by attachment security and spiritual well-being while remaining essentially unaffected by abuse history, linking it to protective factors against depression and substance misuse.
Benda, Brent B., Spirituality and Religiousness and Alcohol/Other Drug Problems: Treatment and Recovery Perspectives, 2006supporting
Psychological development in all its phases is a redemptive process. The goal is to redeem by conscious realization, the hidden Self, hidden in unconscious identification with the ego.
Edinger, drawing on alchemical parallels, characterises psychological self-development as an active redemptive labour in which the individual must work upon the prima materia of the unconscious to release the hidden Self.
Edinger, Edward F., Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche, 1972supporting
these diagrams represent progressive stages of ego-Self separation appearing in the course of psychological development... the vital connecting link between ego and Self that ensures the integrity of the ego.
Edinger diagrams self-development as a spiral of progressive ego-Self differentiation, the integrity of the ego being maintained throughout by the ego-Self axis.
Edinger, Edward F., Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche, 1972supporting
The right hemisphere matures earlier than the left, and is more involved than the left in almost every aspect of the development of mental functioning in early childhood, and of the self as a social, empathic being.
McGilchrist situates the neurological substrate of self-development in right-hemisphere maturation during early childhood, correlating it with the emergence of empathy, social responsiveness, and self-awareness.
McGilchrist, Iain, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, 2009supporting
If in their inner attitudes the people are firm in what is correct, public officials will know how they must govern; regardless of the form of government, evil finds its basis in the weaknesses of the people.
Anthony extends the principle of inner self-development to social and political life, implying that collective moral conditions are downstream of individual inner work.
Carol K. Anthony, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988aside
disliking some quality in yourself and then going to work on it is a far healthier response than brooding on it
Cunningham, from an astrological perspective, advocates a practical, non-punitive approach to self-development rooted in acceptance and conscious work on shadow qualities.
Donna Cunningham, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, 1982aside