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Monday, August 31, 2015 - 12:00pmSanction this postReply
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Hi Kevin,

 

I enjoyed your article.  My interest always perks up at the mention of Nathaniel.  I had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time with him over the years.  I do want to point out a minor error - a bit technical - and not one that takes away for the theme of conclusions of your article.

 

You wrote:

 

Self esteem is the confidence and reliance upon one self to make decisions about the world and reality.  Self esteem is poorly understood in our society but I define it as the ability to look inward and make value judgements for yourself.  You don't compare yourself to others nor do you seek to be better than someone else (or some other standard). 

 

Nathaniel made a distinction between self-esteem and confidence.  Here is his definition:  "Self-esteem is the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and as worthy of happiness."  And quite often he substituted the concept of "experience oneself as lovable" or, "deserving of love" for "worthy of happiness." 

 

For him, confidence was always relative to something specific, like the confidence we might have when working on something we have trained for and have acquired skills at.  On the other hand, self-esteem was an experience of ourself in a much more general framework.  Self-esteem and confidence come from different sources.  Confidence can be increased, in the average person, by working at the skill that are related and observing the increasing competence in the results we have.  A person could feel quite confident in their ability to read a general ledger, for example, yet hold low self-esteem.  Our self-esteem automatically increases or decreases with the ways that we use our consciousness (self-accepting, self-assertive, practicing integrity, etc.) - it is constant and automatic.

 

Our "ability to look inward and make value judgements" would be a result of self-esteem rather than self-esteem itself. You are right that a person whose self-esteem is high is far less likely to compare themselves to others or be competitive with others in any sense of establishing or proving some kind of worth. 

 

Being able to comfortably rely on oneself to make decisions is a product of self-esteem, and to the degree that we exercise this practice of making our own decisions, the higher our self-esteem will grow (all else remaining equal).  So, it is both an effect and a cause of self-esteem, but not self-esteem itself.

 

As I said at the beginning, these differences don't alter your theme or conclusions.

 

Best Wishes,
Steve Wolfer



Post 1

Tuesday, September 1, 2015 - 4:34amSanction this postReply
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For anyone who cares, I was the one who submitted this external article to the queue for sharing here.

 

I consider it significant how far Objectivism's influence reaches in a non-Objectivist world when we see articles like this one wherein the author actually "gets" what Branden said.



Post 2

Tuesday, September 1, 2015 - 11:19amSanction this postReply
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Hi Luke,

 

Good article, and I guess I won't hold my breath till Kevin Graham makes a reply :-)

 

Thanks for letting me know.



Post 3

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 6:34amSanction this postReply
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Hi Steve & Luke,

 

Thanks for the feedback.  I see your point regarding confidence.

 

I thoroughly enjoy reading anything from Branden.  I have read several books from him but I especially enjoyed the Six Pillars.  I wouldn't hesitate to say it changed my life. 

 

Just picked up a copy of his book on romantic love. 

 

Best Regards,

Kevin



Post 4

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 10:35amSanction this postReply
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Hi Kevin,

 

Branden's Six Pillars was his crowning achievement in the self-esteem area.  Certainly there has been no one else that has had as much of an effect on my life as he did.

 

He saw his two areas of expertise, and the two areas he most loved, as self-esteem and romantic love.

 

Best Wishes,

Steve



Post 5

Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 5:14pmSanction this postReply
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Kevin, welcome to RoR and thanks for posting.



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