The self as abstract

The self does not exist, it is not a tangible concept, and it is nothing more than an abstract machine created by western metaphysicians. The self is nothing more than a group of connections between machines of infinite difference. While people may have bodies, it would be quite reductionist to say that the body or mind is the self. Life is composed of desiring machines, partial objects which connect with one another. The eye which connects with a hand, a mouth, an ear, each of these connections produces something. What is produced is life, sound, language, emotion, the body. Everything is constantly in flux, a person is much like a river, although it appears the same, it is always different and always changing.
Rilke is correct in his assumptions that the face is a mask and that the body is merely a costume, however he engages in his observation from the wrong starting point. Much like a scientist needing a microscope to understand what an organism is made up with, which examining the so called self, it is imperative to examine not only the body, but the pre-human, as well as the virtual (e.g. thoughts, emotions). It would be incorrect to assume that there are such things as dualisms, especially between the mind and body. In order to understand the self one must embrace the paradox that everything is interconnected, yet at the same time it is infinitely different. There is no such thing as a universal body, or mind, although there may be similarities which are visible to the eye, or in their function, they are never going to be the same.