The article analyses the development of the plot of the story by Leonid Andreev “The Abyss”, paying particular attention to the changes taking place in the internal structure of the “self” of the main character of the story, understood as a non-equilibrium system. A number of external impulses, initiated from the outside, causes gradually so powerful fluctuations that the character’s “self” undergoes a process of restructuring, which reveals until then hidden, unknown, primitive composite only partly overlaid by cultural memes.