This is very similar to what Socialogist George Herbert Mead proposed in his grand theory of "Social Behaviorism" (1934):

   "Mead the social psychologist argued the antipositivistic view 
   that the individual is a product of society, or more specifically, 
   social interaction. The self arises when the individual becomes an
    object to themselves. Mead argued that we are objects first to 
   other people, and secondarily we become objects to ourselves by 
   taking the perspective of other people. Language enables us to 
   talk about ourselves in the same way as we talk about other people, 
   and thus through language we become other to ourselves.[16] In joint 
   activity, which Mead called 'social acts', humans learn to see themselves 
   from the standpoint of their co-actors. A central mechanism within 
   the social act, which enables perspective taking, is position 
   exchange. People within a social act often alternate social 
   positions (e.g., giving/receiving, asking/helping, winning/losing,    
   hiding/seeking, talking/listening). In children's games there is 
   repeated position exchange, for example in hide-and-seek, and Mead 
   argued that this is one of the main ways that perspective taking develops." 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Herbert_Mead)

He proposed that organisms first experience or see themselves as an object (or perceive themselves at all, thus stepping over the instinct-border) when they use their voice and hear their voice at the same time and see that others react to that voice too. Even though it is very theoretical it makes for good and interesting reading.