“Ooops! About That Self-Esteem Thing…”
John Fischer

I just read an article in the newspaper by an author and professor of psychology at a state university who was involved in a task force over thirty years ago to study the benefits of a high self-esteem. It was thought, at the time, that improving self-esteem would solve such problems as crime, teen pregnancy, school failure, drug abuse and domestic violence. The professor admitted that even back then, the evidence didn’t come in as conclusively as they hoped for, but they kept on touting the value of self-esteem anyway, expecting that time would reveal mountains of new evidence.

Well, five years ago, this same gentleman was named to another task force to wade through those mountains of research and study on self-esteem, and come up with some open-minded conclusions. And what did they find? They found out that boosting a person’s self-esteem didn’t make them better; it only made them think they were better, which tended to make them more arrogant and less of a benefit to those around them. In other words, boosting self-esteem caused more problems than it solved.

It’s amazing how such a casual article on the opinion page of a national newspaper can admit that the learned community of the western world has been selling us a lie for a generation. “A generation—and many millions of dollars—later,” he writes, “it turns out we may have been mistaken.”

Of course it’s not all their fault. We bought it. We liked believing in the values of self-esteem. It felt so good to have a clinically proven reason to boost the self.

It does explain a lot, however. For one thing, it explains how finding that we were made not for ourselves but for Someone else and for a purpose beyond ourselves has been like salve to an oozing wound of a society that bought the lie. Why else would 20 million people, raised on the values of self-esteem, buy a book that started out: “It’s not about you”?

After thirty years of following the wrong trail, this psychology professor concluded, “my recommendation is this: Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline.” It’s nice to have it confirmed, though our Bibles have been saying this all along. For instance, here’s something to meditate on today:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. (Romans 12:2-3 NLT)

Self-esteem is important—Jesus assumed a healthy self-esteem when he told us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves—but I don’t think it’s something most of us need to spend a lot of time on. Better to put esteem into loving God and serving others, and I think we’ll come along just fine.

PDL