Yes, exactly. Even the Buddhist idea of enlightenment is basically overcoming the self which is hardwired into us as a survival mechanism. I have an autistic son, so I see first hand what an incomplete sense of self does. He has major social difficulties because for many years, he didn't fully grasp his own sense of self, so he couldn't get that other people are "selves" also. He had almost no empathy.

A social species like humans will always have this conflict. On one hand, we need the instincts for personal survival, or we wouldn't survive long enough as individuals to reproduce. And we need the instincts for empathy and group cohesion, or we wouldn't form complex societies and enjoy those benefits. The two instincts are opposed on many levels. Buddhists argue that all our problems come from our selfish motivations, and there is a deep truth to that. But realistically, you can't fully abandon those selfish motivations because they are hardwired into us. At best you can learn to overcome them.

I've spend many hours meditating on the emptiness of self. I see the deeper truth Buddhists point to. The congruence with modern neuroscience is striking. Both basically state that the self is an illusion generated by the activity of your mind. We are an action, not an object, but yet, we conceive of ourselves as solid, immutable souls.

The terms don't mean anything outside of the doctrine. No terms mean anything outside of the context from which they are drawn. I find the concept useful because it points to a fundamental truth about reality that we perceive differently than the way it is. Whether your arrive at this realization through modern neuroscience or ancient Buddhism, it puts you one step closer to directly perceiving reality, which makes you less like to succumb to delusion.