The self-exploratory, self-examining role it implies is something very central to our post-Freudian age.

The cowl of the holy man was thrown back, exposing his mortified lineaments and his self-examining eye to those around.

The reading and writing of fiction is obviously driven in part by a desire to look inward, to be self-examining, reflective.

He was unconsciously dishonest to himself in these self-examinings, and one day this dawned upon him.