Our idea of 'self' if not dead, is in an 'oxygen tent'.

The starting point on the subject is that almost all philosophical orientations today, even if they strongly oppose each other, agree on some kind of basic anti-subjectivist stance. The subject is ossifying, although not yet a clamour has become a consensus view. The feeling is that the dynamism of the subject has exhausted itself and is now in terminal decline. Some suggest the subject, or self, if not dead, is in an ‘oxygen tent’ and we are beginning to become haunted by its gradual disappearance.

In the quest for the essential self, you are required to continually peel the onion but as Ibsen (Peer Gynt) points out when you get to the centre it cannot hold.  Many would agree that the ‘Self’ is an illusion, no more than a badge of affirmation.  They would argue that although the ‘Self’ may serve as an oasis of solace it is no more than that proper little button on the vest of the world.