"The use of the self", is one of F.M.Alexander's books on Alexander Technique.
Alexander, had a conception of man as psycho-physical unity, and that is what he meant by "self".
But this psycho-physical unity, cannot be taken for granted. Indeed, if we "were" psycho-physical unities, then there would be no question about mal-coordination.
Coordination is required precisely because we are NOT psycho-physical unities; psycho-physical unity is a condition to be reached.
Many of our activities are mere physiological reflexes, which one could hardly describe as "I did ...", more appropriate would be describing such activities in the passive voice.
Our "habits", which F.M.Alexander dealt with extensively, constitute another kind of reflexes, the ones that Pavlov described as "conditioned".
Both of the above are "subconscious" kinds of behavior; the self, the subject is absent.
Another kind of behaviour is end-gaining: when we succeed everything is fine; but when we fail there arises what F. M. Alexander lucidly termed "a civil war within the self".
In such instances the "I" gets divided into two, one which is felt as "me", and the other as "not-me".
("The inner game of tennis" by Tim Galway, which deals with this issue.)
There is another "I", which as I see it is "the" self that is referred by "The use of the self", and the object of the Alexander Technique.
