"Self Is Not the Endpoint": Structural Convergence Across Three Religious Traditions and Three Psychoanalytic Frameworks / "自我不是终点":三个宗教传统与三个精神分析框架的结构性汇聚
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) April 7, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19446779 via OpenAlex
Summary
Six intellectual traditions—Buddhism, philosophical Daoism (Zhuangzi), Christianity (Pauline epistles and mystical tradition), Freud's structural psychoanalysis, Jung's analytical psychology, and SAE psychoanalysis—independently converge on a structurally similar judgment: the self, defined as the reflexive, boundary-maintaining layer that discriminates 'mine' from 'not mine,' is not the highest or final layer of personhood. The paper presents this convergence, analyzes its 3×3 network structure (three religious traditions × three psychoanalytic frameworks), and argues that the convergence constitutes evidence worth taking seriously, while distinguishing this claim from perennial philosophy, ontological identity claims, and reductionism. SAE psychoanalysis provides a coordinate system explaining why this convergence occurs.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Six intellectual traditions independently converge on the judgment that the self is not the highest layer of personhood, and this convergence is explained by SAE psychoanalysis as arising from a logically necessary jurisdictional limit of the self-as-filter. |
Abstract
Description Six intellectual traditions — Buddhism, philosophical Daoism (Zhuangzi), Christianity (Pauline epistles and mystical tradition), Freud's structural psychoanalysis, Jung's analytical psychology, and SAE psychoanalysis — independently arrive at a structurally similar judgment: the self (the reflexive, boundary-maintaining layer that discriminates "mine" from "not mine") is not the highest or final layer of personhood. This paper presents the convergence, analyzes its 3×3 network structure (three religious traditions × three psychoanalytic frameworks), and argues that the convergence constitutes evidence worth taking seriously — while explicitly distinguishing this claim from perennial philosophy, ontological identity claims, and reductionism. SAE psychoanalysis provides a coordinate system explaining why this convergence occurs: the self-as-filter has a logically necessary jurisdictional limit, and any sufficiently deep inquiry into personhood will encounter it. Paper V in the SAE Life, Death, and Consciousness Series. Keywords self, non-self, anattā, superego, Self, Zhuangzi, Paul, Freud, Jung, structural convergence, perennial philosophy, thing-in-itself, SAE, psychoanalysis, comparative philosophy Publication Date 2026-04-06 Resource Type Preprint Language Chinese (authoritative) / English (independent rewrite) License CC BY 4.0 Related Identifiers Is Part Of (SAE Life, Death, and Consciousness Series) Paper I: 10.5281/zenodo.19201237 Paper II: 10.5281/zenodo.19226545 Paper III: 10.5281/zenodo.19364492 Paper IV: 10.5281/zenodo.19385464 References SAE Psychoanalysis Paper 1: 10.5281/zenodo.19321143 SAE Psychoanalysis Paper 2: 10.5281/zenodo.19321314 SAE Psychoanalysis Paper 3: 10.5281/zenodo.19321410 SAE Psychoanalysis Paper 4 (Cert): 10.5281/zenodo.19321534 SAE Methodology Paper I: 10.5281/zenodo.18842450 Subjects Philosophy, Comparative Religion, Psychoanalysis, Philosophy of Mind, Buddhist Philosophy, Daoist Philosophy, Christian Mysticism Notes Chinese version is the authoritative text. English version is an independent rewrite, not a translation. Part of the SAE (Self-as-an-End) framework. Series website: https://self-as-an-end.net