`self` refers to the instance of the class, allowing access to its attributes and methods. It's a convention but not a keyword; you can name it differently.

self is a convention used in Python class methods to refer to the instance of the class on which a method is being called. It allows you to access attributes and other methods of the class instance. When you define a method within a class, you must include self as the first parameter, even if you don't use it in the method body:

class Dog:
    def __init__(self, name):
        self.name = name

    def bark(self):
        print(f'{self.name} says woof!')

In this example, self.name refers to the name attribute of the instance. When you create an instance of Dog and call bark(), Python automatically passes the instance as the first argument:

dog = Dog('Rex')
dog.bark()  # Output: Rex says woof!

Although self is not a keyword, it's widely used as a naming convention. You could technically name it anything, but using self is recommended for clarity and consistency, making your code more understandable to others.