1. Figure-ground distinction can be observed not only in perceptual (i.e., apparently physical), but also in emotional (i.e., apparently psychical) phenomena. 2. Self and Other are primarily emotional complexes. 3. Both of them can be experienced in a figurelike, but also in an background-like ("medial") state. 4. The phases of psychoemotional development postulated by psychoanalysts can be reinterpreted as being steps in a transition of Self and Other from a medial into a figural state. 5. This succession has the properties of a synergetic process, with "autonomy claim", a construct introduced in the framework of the "Zürich model of social motivation", acting as a control parameter.