Nathaniel Branden - Psychology of Self-esteem

Psychology of Self-esteem

Branden argues that self-esteem is a human psychological need and that to the extent this need remains unmet, pathology (defensiveness, anxiety, depression, difficulty in relationships, etc.) tends to result. He defines self-esteem formally as “the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and as worthy of happiness,” and proposes that, while others (parents, teachers, friends) can nurture and support self-esteem in an individual, self-esteem also relies upon various internally generated practices. These consist, in Branden’s framework, of six “pillars” of self-esteem:

• Living consciously: the practice of being aware of what one is doing while one is doing it, i.e., the practice of mindfulness.
• Self-acceptance: the practice of owning truths regarding one’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; of being kind toward oneself with respect to them; and of being “for” oneself in a basic sense.
• Self-responsibility: the practice of owning one's authorship of one's actions and of owning one’s capacity to be the cause of the effects one desires.
• Self-assertiveness: the practice of treating one's needs and interests with respect and of expressing them in appropriate ways.
• Living purposefully: the practice of formulating goals and of formulating and implementing action plans to achieve them.
• Personal integrity: the practice of maintaining alignment between one’s behaviors and convictions.

Branden distinguishes his approach to self-esteem from that of many others by his inclusion of both confidence and worth in his definition of self-esteem, and by his emphasis on the importance of internally generated practices for the improvement and maintenance of self-esteem. For this reason, he has at times expressed lack of enthusiasm about the teachings of the “self-esteem movement”, which he is sometimes credited with having spawned. (He has been referred to as “the father of the self-esteem movement.”)