Definition of "self-referential" [self-referential]

• Referring to oneself or itself: The biographer's account of the poet's life was surprisingly self-referential. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "To me, this indicates that he not only believes himself divorced from those social categories, but then projects his own self-referential experience onto others and believes them to be similarly divorced from their social categories."
• "When you are a business owner and in a position of authority, it is human to make assumptions and allow self-referential thinking to dominate."
• "The artist aims to present her dream-like reality with formal considerations, and her self-referential (and self-realizational) execution often has unforeseen results: "A lot of times, I'm really surprised at what comes out was completely unexpected," she says."