That seems more hardware and history.

It seems to me the self is this interface between the body and its environment. It's driven by the appetites, desires and impulses of the body. Then it is the function of the mind to sort among these drives and the opportunities presented by the environment. Often at rates where there isn't much time to analyze, though we think back over and imagine possibilities, which hopefully helps us the next time.

There really isn't a clear line between the individual self and its environment. The primacy of the individual is more of a Western, than Eastern belief, where we see ourselves as distinct objects, but that is on so many levels, as primative as any superstition. It is a consequence of seeking reductionist clarity, where the effect is some conceptual residue, left after all the animate action has been edited out as not sufficiently categorizable.

As Emerson said, we are but thickened light.

Frequencies and amplitudes. Synchronized and harmonized.

The conflicts are part of the evolutionary process. Trial and error.

The bull is power. The matador is art.