Narcisism and Self-esteem

[proteanmix]

I may make this into a thread later.

The NFs and self-esteem thread lead me on a short internet search. When I was doing some looking, I saw this article about self-esteem and a very interesting quote:

''There is absolutely no evidence that low self-esteem is particularly harmful,'' Emler says. ''It's not at all a cause of poor academic performance; people with low self-esteem seem to do just as well in life as people with high self-esteem. In fact, they may do better, because they often try harder.'' Baumeister takes Emler's findings a bit further, claiming not only that low self-esteem is in most cases a socially benign if not beneficent condition but also that its opposite, high self-regard, can maim and even kill. Baumeister conducted a study that found that some people with favorable views of themselves were more likely to administer loud blasts of ear-piercing noise to a subject than those more tepid, timid folks who held back the horn. An earlier experiment found that men with high self-esteem were more willing to put down victims to whom they had administered electric shocks than were their low-level counterparts...

Last year alone there were three withering studies of self-esteem released in the United States, all of which had the same central message: people with high self-esteem pose a greater threat to those around them than people with low self-esteem and feeling bad about yourself is not the cause of our country's biggest, most expensive social problems.

Well damn. I don't know if I agree with that, in fact I'm pretty sure I disagree. I think the personal effects of low self-esteem tend to be more noticeable. People with low-self esteem seem to be easier to take advantage of and easier to abuse (but those high self-esteem folks!!). Maybe they're referring to people whose self-esteem is so high it strays into narcissism and not people with good self-confidence and self-efficacy.

I also saw a reference to this organization National Association for Self-Esteem. I find this image inspiring and misleading all at the same time:

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I guess to me it's like telling a kid they can be anything they want to be when they grow up and not reading them the fine print of what it will take to achieve it and the likely obstacles they'll face.

I'll have to think more on this but so far, very interesting.

 

[INTJMom]

I think I agree with you. It makes me wonder how they measured self esteem. If high self esteem means being willing to blast somebody's eardrums out, what kind of measuring stick are they using?! You can also get bullies and boneheads to do that behavior.

 

[Eiddy]

I find that very interesting. I have often thought the same of those with high self esteem that they are not easy to be taken advantage of and will turn situations to their liking.

Thanks.