Selfs or selves

Question

If I were to say:

“The point of meditation is to learn how your conscious self can communicate with your subconscious self. You are becoming one with your ______(self, selfs, selves).

P.S. a dictionary could not help me with this one because I am but a singular person comprised of many types of consciousnesses. My pronoun is singular though, isn’t it? So it would be ‘yourself’? What if I want to stress the plurality of our consciousnesses though? Then it would okay me to use ‘yourselves’ or would it be ‘your selves’? I overthink things waaaaay to much :/

Thanks in advance for your help! I’ve been wondering this for a very long time.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

HPants314My pronoun is singular though, isn’t it?

Yes. You mean the reader.

HPants314So it would be ‘yourself’?

I don't think so, because it's not what you mean. You are talking about two separate selves. Or selfs.

HPants314What if I want to stress the plurality of our consciousnesses though? Then it would okay me to use ‘yourselves’

No, because the "your" in "yourselves" is plural.

HPants314or would it be ‘your selves’?

Yup. There is nothing at all wrong with "self" in that meaning. I am OK with "selfs" as a nonce word here, but I suspect that many would find it precious. The plural of "self" is "selves", and the duality you have constructed is on firm enough ground that the reader will take in the standard plural automatically without being misled.

You sent me to the oracle, the Oxford English Dictionary, looking for a citation for your "selfs". I found only one, from Charles Johnstone (died 1800), an obscure Irish writer, who wrote "multiply a man into many selfs …." As I said, I am OK with it.

HPants314I overthink things waaaaay to much :/

Me, too. The trick for me is to not give up until the matter is resolved.

Selfs or selves

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