Does Self-Esteem Do You Any Good?
It depends on the type of self-esteem you’re pursuing
I magine there’s a classic movie. It’s called Self-Esteem: First Blood, and it stars James Dean and Marlon Brando. It’s the mid-20th century, post-World War II. Pan across the charred remains of Europe. Show the brave American heroes returning home, buying cheesy houses and making tons and tons of babies.
In the film, we see this: Post-war prosperity made for heady times, more and more people from all walks of life began to buy into the American Dream — the belief that they could be whatever they wanted to be as long as they worked hard and cultivated the qualities of successful people. There was a widespread sense of social solidarity and “can do” optimism.
It’s probably not a coincidence, then, that right around this same time, psychologists started studying what made some people more successful than others. By the 1960s, they believed they had found the holy grail of psychological constructs. It is the hero of this film. It is: self-esteem.¹
Self-esteem was a measurement of how a person felt about themselves. If you think you’re a pretty rad dude or dudette and have confidence and you can accomplish your goals — then congratulations, you have high self-esteem. If you think your life is a metaphorical, never-ending car…
