Chapter Eight—
8. Pseudo-Self-Esteem
Fear Versus Thought
The possession of self-esteem does not provide a man with automatic immunity to errors—errors about life, about
other men, about the appropriate course of action to pursue—that may have painful emotional consequences.
Rationality does not guarantee infallibility.
But a healthy self-esteem gives man an inestimable weapon in dealing with errors: since his own value and the
efficacy of his mind are not in doubt, since he does not feel that reality is his enemy, he is free to bring the full of
his intellectual powers and knowledge to the task of identifying facts and of dealing with problems. The foundation
of his consciousness is secure, so to speak.
Conversely, one of the most disastrous consequences of an impaired or deficient self-esteem is that it tends to
hamper and undercut the efficiency of a man's thinking processes—depriving him of the full strength and benefit of
his own intelligence.
To the extent that a man lacks self-esteem, his consciousness is ruled by fear: fear of reality, to which he feels
inadequate; fear of the facts about himself which he has evaded or repressed. Fear is the antithesis of thought. If a
man believes that crucial aspects of reality, with which he must deal, are hopelessly closed to his understanding, if
he faces the key problems of his life with a basic sense of helplessness, if he feels that he dare not pursue certain
lines of thought because of the unworthy features of his own character that would be brought to light—if he feels,
in any sense whatever, that reality is the enemy of his self-esteem (or his