diff --git a/packages/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-self/src/index.js b/packages/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-self/src/index.js
index 85113bca0c..2fd02a77ed 100644
--- a/packages/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-self/src/index.js
+++ b/packages/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx-self/src/index.js
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
-
- /**
- * This adds {fileName, lineNumber} annotations to React component definitions
- * and to jsx tag literals.
+/**
+ * This adds a __self={this} JSX attribute to all JSX elements, which React will use
+ * to generate some runtime warnings.
  *
  *
  * == JSX Literals ==
@@ -17,10 +16,11 @@ const TRACE_ID = "__self";
 
 export default function ({ types: t }) {
   let visitor = {
-    JSXOpeningElement(node) {
+    JSXOpeningElement({ node }) {
       const id = t.jSXIdentifier(TRACE_ID);
-      const trace = t.identifier("this");
-      node.container.openingElement.attributes.push(t.jSXAttribute(id, t.jSXExpressionContainer(trace)));
+      const trace = t.thisExpression();
+
+      node.attributes.push(t.jSXAttribute(id, t.jSXExpressionContainer(trace)));
     }
   };