If, as a young person matures, he maintains the will to understand, he will be led, necessarily, to the policy of
conceptualizing—of looking for and thinking in terms of principles—at the indispensable means of cognitive
clarity. Without a process of integration, understanding is impossible—and without concepts and principles,
integration is impossible.
The policy of conceptualizing—of thinking in principles—is the basic characteristic of psychological maturity. It is
an invariable concomitant of a fully achieved self-esteem.
Such, then, is the basic condition necessary for the achievement of self-esteem: the preservation of the will to
understand, in every aspect of one's life.
Now let us consider another condition necessary for the achievement of self-esteem.
In the course of a human being's development, he encounters a problem which—according to how he chooses to
deal with it—has profound repercussions on his self-esteem. First encountered in childhood, it is a problem that
every person faces on some occasions in his life. There are times when a man's mind and emotions are not instantly
and perfectly synchronized: he experiences desires or fears that clash within his rational understanding, and he must
choose to follow either his rational understanding or his emotions.
One of the most important things a child must learn is that emotions are not adequate guides to action. The fact that
he desires to perform some action is not proof that he should perform it; the fact that he fears to perform some
action is not proof that he should avoid performing it. Emotions are not tools of cognition nor criteria of judgment.
The ability to distinguish between knowledge and feelings is an essential element in the process of a mind's healthy
maturation. It is vital for the achievement and preservation of self-esteem.
Self-esteem requires and entails cognitive self-assertiveness, which is expressed through the policy of thinking, of
judging, and of governing action accordingly. To subvert the authority of one's rational understanding—to sacrifice
one's mind in favor of feelings one cannot justify or defend—is to subvert one's self-esteem.
Reason is the active, initiating element in man—the process that he must generate volitionally; emotions are the
passive, reactive element—the automatic product of subconscious integrations,