The Psychology of Self-Esteem

value. Since reason is man's basic tool of survival, this means: the life appropriate to a rational being—or: that which is requ ...

ing the life proper to man. Neither is a man whose mind is volitionally paralyzed. If man is to live, he must recognize that fac ...

living entity that things can be good or evil; life is the basic value that makes all other values possible; the value of life i ...

man who renounces, but the man who creates; not the man who forsakes life, but the man who makes life possible. The Objectivist ...

must never attempt to subvert or sabotage the proper function of consciousness. In order to deal with reality successfully—to pu ...

integrated into the rest of one's knowledge, and to induce a trance-like illusion of understanding. One must be willing to repre ...

by one's own concession, contains the supernatural, the miraculous, and the causeless, a universe in which one is at the mercy o ...

the recognition of the helplessness, the smallness, the impotence of one's mind. Is man omniscient?—demand the mystics. Is he in ...

and destructiveness have been thoroughly exposed by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged. But there are two aspects of the issue that are ...

An irrational morality, a morality set in opposition to man's nature, to the facts of reality and to the requirements of man's s ...

Or the daughter who collapses in guilt over the sin of not wanting to devote her life to caring for the ailing father who has gi ...

agreement on faith. He must learn to fight for his own happiness and to deserve it. He must learn that the irrational will not w ...

I have found it immensely helpful to have patients do written '' homework" assignments during the progress of therapy. At the e ...

be oblivious. Often, for example, the patient is telling the therapist one story with his words and an entirely different story ...

patient to ask it, and keep asking it, day after day, week after week, month after month, about every conceivable aspect of his ...

With regard to these latter problems, it is important for the patient to be very specific in identifying the therapeutic goals h ...

As we have discussed, many elements are involved in therapy: helping the patient to identify his feelings and desires, teaching ...

The question is often asked: To what extent is it necessary to analyze childhood experiences in order to resolve the psychologi ...

Obviously, patients do not normally die from a deficiency of self-esteem (although sometimes they do, as in suicide or other for ...

EPILOGUE— Epilogue: Working with Self-Esteem in Psychotherapy When I began practicing psychotherapy in the 1950s, I became convi ...