Fig. 1

Conceptual Possibilities for the Relations between Self Constructs and Psychiatric Traits. Each coloured arrow depicts one construct of the self (e.g. self-prioritisation, self-concept, bodily self, agency etc.). Panels a and b show two extremes of the possible relations between these constructs, where all of them are approximately orthogonal (panel a) or where they tightly correlate along one axis (panel b). In the multi-dimensional version, there are many more ways in which selves can differ, as an individual can fall at different values for each arm independently. Panels c and d show two ways in which each axis might relate to psychiatric conditions and their traits. In the case where the traits of some conditions covary with a self-cognitive dimension and others don’t, a binary separating psychiatric conditions as related to that self-construct or not is appropriate (panel c). If the psychiatric conditions all covary with a given self-construct, but to different degrees, this suggests a spectrum of relation to psychiatric traits for that construct is more appropriate (panel d). The latter affords a more nuanced fingerprint of each psychiatric condition as it relates to each self-construct, especially if one integrates this pattern across all arms of panel a