"Self / self" can mean different things.
"self" (note the small "s") could denote the ego: the mind-made images of oneself as a separate entity adrift in a hostile universe from which scraps of excitement or bloated satisfaction can occasionally be snatched.
"Self" (note the capital "S") could denote the spirit that is who I really am (I am not a body; I am not my thoughts; I am not everywhere I have been or everyone I have been play-acting: I am the observer thereof), which is part of an endless continuum of consciousness through the universe.
In my alcoholism, I lost Self to self. Now I need to have self gotten rid of so I can find mySelf, and, in so doing, the "I" disappears and becomes "We".