What is the difference between in itself and to itself?

Question

What is the difference between in itself and to itself?

Answer 1

Without an example, a context, this is not easy to answer. I ill assume something like, The process proceeded "in itself", and It did it "to itself".

If something is happening "in itself", that is a statement without any indication of how or why: simply that something happened, whereas "to itself" vaguely implies that the cause of the occurrence was the thing itself, and often implies awareness and intention.