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The term <i>[[self]]-[[image]]</i> has entered common usage. Initially referred to by psychologists, it was then taken up by [[psychoanalysts ]] without really [[being ]] theorized. The self-image is ostensibly the [[representation ]] that everyone has of themselves, in [[physical ]] as well as [[physiological]], sociological, and [[mental ]] [[terms]], envisioned through the prism of each [[individual ]] self-evaluation at different [[stages ]] of [[development ]] and in different situations.Formerly, this [[notion ]] was often considered to be the equivalent of the [[body ]] scheme, postural scheme, somatopsyche, image of body-ego, or even somatognosia, although each of these notions had its own characteristics in terms of both its limits and its basic conception. Within this current of [[thought]], the self-image can be seen as the representation of one's own body, as both body-[[object ]] within one's [[environment ]] and body in relation to [[others]]; or as the [[totality ]] of a body that is initially experienced as being fragmented; or, finally, as a body that is experienced as [[autonomous]], upon emergence from the period of non-differentiation.When used in [[psychoanalysis]], the self-image brings together the notions of body image, self-[[consciousness]], the [[concept ]] of the self, self-[[identity]], and ego-identity. Self-image is constructed through imitations of (for [[psychology]]), or identifications with (in psychoanalysis), [[people ]] around the [[subject ]] or [[real ]] or heroic [[imaginary ]] [[figures]], throughout the development of [[narcissism ]] and the setting up of the [[ideal ]] ego, the [[ego ideal]], and the [[superego]]. The self-image is dependent as well upon the type of [[object relations ]] established.The notion of the self-image emerged in and was refined through the [[work ]] of a [[number ]] of authors, in [[particular ]] that of Henri Wallon, who described the emergence, during the fifth [[stage ]] of development (personalism), of self-[[awareness]], which can only occur if the [[child ]] is capable of having a self-image. This ability is related to the [[test ]] in which the child recognizes itself in a [[mirror]], whereas previously it had mistaken its [[specular ]] image for [[another ]] person. Heinz [[Hartmann]], founder of the [[ego psychology ]] movement, introduced the [[distinction ]] between the ego, as [[psychic ]] [[agency]], and the self, in the [[sense ]] of the person or [[personality ]] proper. [[Paul ]] Schilder posited that the [[formation ]] of body image plays a determining [[role ]] in the genesis of the representation of self that follows organization of the ego and the evolution of narcissism. In the view of Donald [[Winnicott]], the [[mother ]] and the primary mothering environment mirror (or do not mirror) back to the child an image of itself with which the child can (or cannot) [[identify]]. In this view, the self is an agency of the personality in the [[narcissistic ]] sense, a representation of self for the self, a [[libidinal ]] investment of self. Heinz Kohut, in self-psychology [[theory]], proposed the self as a notion that relates to the personality in its entirety, to psychic functioning as a [[whole]], to the [[bodily ]] self, as well as to more clearly defined elements such as [[self-representation]]. Jacques [[Lacan ]] returned to the "[[mirror stage]]" to show that the young child's [[recognition ]] of its own [[specular image ]] founds the [[dual ]] relation, the [[dimension ]] of [[the imaginary]], and the [[ideal ego]]. In the view of Françoise Dolto, body image plays a part in the subject's [[identification ]] and determines the possibility of a [[feeling ]] of self—of self within a body. Here, the body is the basis for the [[construction ]] of the subject's identity in relation to others, and the [[unconscious ]] image of the body is the forgotten ([[repressed]]) bodily foundation for the feeling of self.It is important, too, to make clear that the self-image also depends on how others see and assess us. We should perhaps add to the notion of the self-image the feeling of competence that is the cognitive construction corresponding to the opinion that each of us is subject to on the cognitive, [[social]], and physical levels, and the relational feeling of self-esteem.