So intensely does a man feel the need of a positive view of himself, that he may evade, repress, distort his
judgment, disintegrate his mind—in order to avoid coming face to face with facts that would affect his self-
appraisal adversely. A man who has chosen or accepted irrational standards by which to judge himself, can be
driven all his life to pursue flagrantly self-destructive goals—in order to assure himself that he possesses a self-
esteem which in fact he does not have (Chapter Eight).
If and to the extent that men lack self-esteem, they feel driven to fake it, to create the illusion of self-esteem—
condemning themselves to chronic psychological fraud—moved by the desperate sense that to face the universe
without self-esteem is to stand naked, disarmed, delivered to destruction.
Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects: it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is
the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy
of living.^1
Man's need of self-esteem is inherent in his nature. But he is not born with the knowledge of what will satisfy that
need, or of the standard by which self-esteem is to be gauged; he must discover it.
Why does man need self-esteem? (The fact that men desire it, does not constitute proof that it is a need.) How does
it relate to man's survival? What are the conditions of its attainment? What is the cause of its profound motivational
power? These are the questions we must consider.
There are two facts about man's nature which hold the key to the answer. The first is the fact that reason is man's
basic means of survival. The second is the fact that the exercise of his rational faculty is volitional—that, in the
conceptual realm, man is a being of volitional consciousness.
Most men do not identify the role and importance of reason in their lives. But from the time that a child acquires
the power of self-consciousness, he becomes inescapably aware, if only implicitly, that his consciousness is his
basic tool for dealing with reality, that no manner of existence is possible to him without it, and that his well-being
depends on the efficacy of his mental operations. There is a primitive level on which no one can avoid grasping the
importance of reason. Observe, for instance, that if