Absence of the healthy, appropriately-developed conscious and subconscious inner knowing and awareness of being alive and present as an independent, organic, psychologically autonomous entity/human being.
This Theory recommends a lot of introspection into one’s experience of ‘self’. Before you can identify that you have an unhealthy way of Sensing your Self, it can be helpful to realize that you can’t find, that you are missing, a healthy way of experiencing your Self.
The term ‘Lack-of-Sense-of-Self’ doesn’t add anything new to the Theory, but having this concept can help in your self-assessment. It is easier to detect ‘I have a lack of Sense-of-Self’ than to spot the result of that situation: ‘I am dependent on a Substitute-Sense-of-Self for my Self-experience.’
The word ‘lack’ emphasizes two lacks: that a void was created in early childhood that was in dire need of being filled, and was filled with something unhealthy which lead to a lack of what would have been healthy.