which that work makes possible. Feeling confident of his ability to deal with the facts of reality, he will want a
challenging, effortful, creative existence. Creativeness will be his highest love, whatever his level of intelligence.
Feeling confident of his own value, he will be drawn to self-esteem in others; what he will desire most in human
relationships is the opportunity to feel admiration; he will want to find men and achievements he can respect, that
will give him the pleasure which his own character and achievements can offer others. In the sphere both of work
and of human relationships, his base and motor is a firm sense of confidence, of efficacy—and, as a consequence, a
love for existence, for the fact of being alive. What he seeks are means to express and objectify his self-esteem
(Chapter Eleven).
The base and motor of the man without self-esteem is not confidence, but fear. Not to live, but to escape his terror
of life, is his fundamental goal. Not creativeness, but safety, is his ruling desire. And what he seeks from others is
not the chance to experience admiration, but an escape from moral values, an escape from moral judgment, a
promise to be forgiven, to be accepted, to be taken care of—to be taken care of metaphysically—to be comforted
and protected in a terrifying universe. His values are not the expression of his self-esteem, but the confession of its
lack.
A man's self-esteem or pseudo-self-esteem determines his abstract values, not the specific goals he will seek; the
latter proceed from a number of factors, such as a man's intelligence, knowledge, premises, and personal context.
For instance, a man of high self-esteem will desire intellectually challenging work; but whether he chooses to enter
business or science or art depends on narrower, less fundamental considerations. Similarly, a man of pseudo-self-
esteem will desire that others protect him from reality; but a variety of factors determine whether he feels more at
home among the country club set or the academic set or the underworld set.
The principle that distinguishes the basic motivation of a man of self-esteem from that of a man of pseudo-self-
esteem, is the principle of motivation by love versus motivation by fear. Love of self and of existence—versus the
fear that one's self is unfit for existence. Motivation by confidence—versus motivation by terror.
Here, then, is another index of mental health and illness: A man is psychologically healthy to the extent that he
functions on