Being a "self" and determining oneself - these guiding ideas of modernity are tied to various prerequisites. With the intention of understanding the current state of the self - fluctuating between exhaustion and hypertrophy - an analysis of the constitution and structure of self-formations is undertaken from philosophical, sociological, theological, cultural studies, and psychiatric perspectives. This analysis provides answers to the question of how this self, which is not a static entity but rather a processual formation, has developed and may continue to develop. The contributions largely stem from a symposium at the AMEOS Klinikum Dr. Heines Bremen in July 2014 and are supplemented by additional texts.