Causative verbs: can the "Self" be the doer?

Question

I have noticed that there are a few causative-like structures in English that do not tend to be natural in Japanese.
Namely, in this question: "Makes you/me/..." by a nonhuman agent

In addition to this, I have noticed that in Japanese it is less common to refer to "making" or "letting" yourself do something.

Consider the following English sentences I consider to be natural:

• Last night I was really sick, and to get rid of the pain, I made myself vomit.
• When I let myself think too much, I get anxiety too.
• You know, you shouldn't always hold your emotions in, how about once in a while you try letting yourself actually feel those emotions.

After exposure, I feel that in these instances, you probably wouldn't say:

自分に食べた物を吐かせた
自分に考えさせすぎたら 　　
自分にその気持ちを実感させてみたらどう？

The only causative verb (although I'm unsure it's actually causative in practice) that I can think of commonly used with the self is 言い聞かせる "to say/tell and make listen". But by in large this use of causative seems to be avoided.

My questions are whether or not you can in any instance use the causative with the self, why Japanese may avoid this use of the causative, and if Japanese has any other way of expressing "make/let oneself" depending on context.

Answer 1

Something like 自分を奮い立たせる or 自分に言い聞かせる is okay, but this may be because these have already been established as independent verbs. "Pure" causative constructions with 自分 as the agent, like the ones you listed, are indeed odd. There are multiple ways to fix them, but Vようにする is probably one of the most useful options.

• 自分に食べた物を吐かせた
  → 無理矢理食べた物を吐いた
• 自分に考えさせすぎたら
  → 考えすぎたら / 考えるのを止めなかったら / あまりに考えるようにしていたら
• 自分に気持ちを実感させてみたら
  → (わざと/敢えて)気持ちを実感するようにしてみたら

It's difficult to answer a question like "why Japanese may avoid this use of the causative", but I think they never felt the need for such a construction in the first place. I still remember the first time I encountered the expression "to make myself understood" as an English learner many years ago. This pattern seemed so alien to me that it took quite some time to understand its structure logically. In Japanese, it's just a single word: 通じる!