Selfness arises when the possible I am is reflected as absent-presence

Evidence

Thus reflection (reflexion) as the effort of a for-itself to recover a for-itself which it is in the mode of non-being is a stage of nihilation intermediate between the pure and simple existence of the for-itself and existence for-others; it is an act on the part of a for-itself to recover a for-itself which it is not in the mode of non-being. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 513 (#expands, via linked claim)

But how can this specular structure be understood in logical terms? Divine self-presence is interrupted, or rather opened up, by an inner distance. We can interpret this through the concept of the substance-subject and its movement, a movement in which God negates himself as immediate and substantial power, positing himself as other in the Incarnation which sees his birth as ‘subject’, before returning in the form of singularity to absolute substance. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 858 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Selfness means man is always separated from himself by being — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 213; Human reality arises as a lack of an impossible self-totality — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 362; Personality arises from consciousness’s reflective self-presence, not from the Ego (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Reflection is an intermediate stage of nihilation between self-existence and existence-for-others #expands (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 513
• Absence is not given by objects but posited by a consciousness that negates #expands (0.82)
• Divine self-presence is opened up by an internal distance rather than merely broken #complicates (0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 858
• Invisible presence requires real absence to seem omnipresent #complicates (0.78) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 37
• Consciousness’s distance from God mirrors and derives from God’s own self-distancing #expands (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 163