An object refers to itself normally by using the `this` reference. The `this` reference is the way an object can pass a

reference to itself to some other code as a method argument:

{% highlight java %}

public void myMethod() {

MyClass mc = new MyClass();

mc.doStuff(this); // pass a ref to object running myMethod

}

{% endhighlight %}

So within an inner class code, the `this` reference refers to the instance of the inner class, as you'd probably expect,

since `this` always refers to the currently executing object. But when the inner class code wants an explicit reference

to the outer class instance that the inner instance is tied to, it can access the outer class `this` like:

{% highlight java %}

class MyInner {

public void seeOuter() {

System.out.println("Outer x is " + x);

System.out.println("Inner class ref is " + this);

System.out.println("Outer class ref is " + MyOuter.this);

}

}

{% endhighlight %}

NOTE: Normally the inner class code doesn't need a reference to the outer class, since it already has an implicit one

it's using to access the members of the outer class, it would need a reference to the outer class if it needed to pass

that reference to some other code as in the above example.