within a class, redefining self with pickled file

[syd]

def unpickle(self):
  self = pickle.load(open(self.getFilePath('pickle')))

This evidently does not work.  Any idea why?  I'd like to be able to
replace a lightly populated class (enough to identify the pickled
version correctly) with it's full version that's sitting pickled in a
file.

As of right now, I need to just return self and redefine the class.

Thanks!