unself

plural unselves

1. countableuncountableThat which is not the self.

   Goodness is connected with the attempt to see the unself, to see and to respond to the real world in the light of a virtuous consciousness.

   1971, Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good, New York: Schocken Books, →ISBN, page 93

   1 more example

   Beckett's text for Neither is a fantasia on limbo, on the no-man's-land between self and unself, subject and object, where we are all forced to dwell: […]

   2003, Daniel Albright, Beckett and Aesthetics, page 149

   Synonyms: nonself

present singular third person unselfs · participle present unselfing · participle past unselfed · past unselfed

1. intransitiveTo deprive of, or detach from, the self.

   Because “the people who are the exploiters of this planet are people who put themselves first”—unable to unself even for a moment.

   2023, Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Penguin, →ISBN, page 324

   2 more examples

   Following a hint in Plato (Phaedrus 250) I shall start by speaking of what is perhaps the most obvious thing in our surroundings which is an occasion for ‘unselfing’, and that is what is popularly called beauty.

   1971, Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good, New York: Schocken Books, →ISBN, page 84

   The goal, said [Simone] Weil, — and the British writer Iris Murdoch after her — was to unself. The whole point, in their supposition, was to turn one’s attention toward the bigger questions.

   2026 February 15, Lauren Jackson, “How to Pay Attention”, in The New York Times, →ISSN