The Psychology of Self-Esteem

In order to live, man must act to achieve values. Pleasure or enjoyment is at once an emotional payment for successful action an ...

There are, broadly, five (interconnected) areas that allow man to experience the enjoyment of life: productive work, human relat ...

is neurotic) is motivated by fear and by a desire to escape it. This difference in motivation is reflected, not only in the thin ...

a neurotic can "enjoy" a party for reasons unrelated to the real activities taking place; he may hate or despise or fear all the ...

the challenging; he can seek the pleasure of admiration, of looking up to great values. Or he can seek the satisfaction of conte ...

a spiritual equal whom he can love. The quality that will attract him most is self-esteem—self-esteem and an unclouded sense of ...

Since the function of pleasure is to afford man a sense of his own efficacy, the neurotic is caught in a deadly conflict: he is ...

Chapter Eight— 8. Pseudo-Self-Esteem Fear Versus Thought The possession of self-esteem does not provide a man with automatic imm ...

pretense at self-esteem)—these fears act as the saboteurs of his psycho-epistemological efficacy. There are many ways in which a ...

of guilt or unworthiness can significantly distort his introspection. He may be drawn, not to the most logical explanation of hi ...

one "get-rich-quick" scheme after another—always blind to the evidence that his plans are impractical, always brushing aside unp ...

reality, can be achieved only by the consistent exercise of the one faculty that permits man to apprehend reality: his reason. S ...

one's duty," or being stoical or altruistic or financially successful or sexually attractive. This complex process of self-decep ...

which that work makes possible. Feeling confident of his ability to deal with the facts of reality, he will want a challenging, ...

the principle of motivation by confidence; the degree of his motivation by fear is the degree of his mental illness. To the exte ...

work as a means of evading one's flaws, shortcomings, and conflicts, is not rational. Often, however, defense- values are irrati ...

Whenever he feels vaguely guilty over his inertia, or whenever his wife reproaches him for his lack of ambition and nags him to ...

of the knowledge that his defense-values are now inadequate to protect him and that there is no longer any place to run. Just as ...

adore her, that their adoration fill the vacuum of the ego she does not possess; —The man who never forms independent judgments ...

cumstances," "human infirmity," "I never got a break," "I'm too honest and decent for this world," etc. The concept of a "real m ...