The Psychology of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Branden Book Review by Ndiritu Wahome A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Understanding That Launched a New Era in Modern Psychology

Nathaniel Branden, just like the stroke of genius of his once lover, Ayn Rand, has exceptionally highlighted among the best key pillars of self-esteem, and in passing has pointed the philosophy of objective ethics or rather ‘Objectivist Psychology ’in relation to the psychology of self-esteem. The over 250 paged book is indeed a marvel that has shaped today’s psychology in understanding the human psyche as far as self-esteem is concerned with human well-being. It is a book that I would highly recommend to anybody who is struggling with self-esteem issues and any ardent lover of the works of the exceptionally gifted Nathaniel Braden. 

Facets of Nathaniel Braden Philosophy on the Psychology of Self-Esteem

Among the things the author has talked about in this magnificent handbook of self-esteem is self-esteem in Psychotherapy, thereby tackling two major themes of self-esteem namely; self-confidence and self-respect. One of the goals that Nathaniel had in mind was to show how one can be efficacious in the face of life challenges and thereby build self-confidence in such circumstances. His experiences as a practitioner in the field of psychotherapy for more than four decades is what made him learn and have an in-depth analysis of self-esteem as a whole, not to mention his reasoning about human experiences and the experimentation of his own ideas, their flaws, and the lessons learnt thereafter.

According to him, self-esteem is not a feel-good phenomenon rather a deep-rooted exercise of the mind that is generated from within and not from other people’s advice or ideas as we have previously been told by his predecessors, and is closely related to personal integrity, self-responsibility, rationality, and perseverance. One of the analogies he offers that can best define the source of self-esteem is like working out, one can be encouraged to exercise, but one can only do so when one whim it.

What is Self-Esteem?

Self-esteem is the sense that man, qua man, is able to think and deal with the facts of reality (personal efficacy), and that he is confident that whatever decision he makes is right for him and leads to the betterment of his life (personal worth). In that sense, he has to have the self-respect to know that his mind is the basic tool of survival, and only its usage can make his life better, and that he shouldn’t do anything to compromise his values or wellbeing for the sake of others. He is assertive that he is enough for himself, and that his happiness comes first before anything else, and it seeks no validation or goal other than being an end in itself, and that life is what he makes of it and not what others dictate to him. Nonetheless, man has the option of to think or not to think, and the violation power to decided and differential between knowledge and feelings. He has the power to choose whether he will be directed by intellect or emotions, and this is the bases of self-confidence. Self-confidence is the conviction that one is competent to think, judge, know, and correct one’s errors and be unreservedly committed to place one’s values or considerations higher than reality, and put no devotion or concern higher than one’s respect to facts.

‘Self-esteem has two interrelated aspects: it entails a sense of personal efficacy and a sense of personal worth. It is the integrated sum of self-confidence and self-respect. It is the conviction that one is competent to live and worthy of living.’

What is Self-Confidence?

This is the total confidence in one’s mind—in its reliability as a tool of cognition. Man must be competent enough to be in touch with reality and put his values way above the present happenings of reality. He must be able to put his thoughts and ideas way higher than anything, having the confidence that the choices he makes arise from the usage of his mind in the best possible manner to reason and infer meaning in relation with his surroundings.

With self-confidence, a man has the choice to:

1. A man can activate and sustain a sharp mental focus, seeking to bring his understanding to an optimal level of precision and clarity—or he can keep his focus to the level of blurred approximation, in a state of passive, undiscriminating, goalless mental drifting.

2. A man can differentiate between knowledge and feelings, letting his judgment be directed by his intellect, not his emotions—or he can suspend his intellect under the pressure of strong feelings (desires or fears), and deliver himself to the direction of impulses whose validity he does not care to consider.

3. A man can perform an independent act of analysis, in weighing the truth or falsehood of any claim, or the right or wrong of any issue—or he can accept, in uncritical passivity, the opinions and assertions of others, substituting their judgment for his own.

To the extent that a man characteristically makes the right choices in these issues, he experiences a sense of control over his existence—the control of a mind in proper relationship to reality. Self-confidence is confidence in one’s mind—in its reliability as a tool of cognition.

What is Self-Respect?

This is the ability for man to have a sense of worthiness in all his endeavours, and it is what forms a man’s character.

What is a man’s character? ‘It is the sum of the principles and values that guide his actions in the face of moral choices.’

As a child, man becomes aware of his power to choose his actions as he acquires the sense of being a person. In that state, he experiences the need to feel like a person by his characteristic manners of his actions all in a bid to feel like he is good. The actions he chooses slowly mode his character and gives him, in the end, a sense of worthiness, values and self-respect. The actions that man has the power to choose determine the quality of his self-respect. If he chooses actions that devalue his being, his self-respect shrinks and automatically this affects his values, self-esteem and happiness.

‘Man needs self-respect because he has to act to achieve values—and in order to act, he needs to value the beneficiary of his action.

‘In order to seek values, man must consider himself worthy of enjoying them. In order to fight for his happiness, he must consider himself worthy of happiness.’

Self Esteem and Productive Work

A man of high self-esteem is able to grow and exercise his mental abilities and thereby carry out productive work. On the other hand, a man of low self-esteem does not have a sense of self-efficacy and personal worth, therefore, he falters in his ability to make sound mental decisions hence affecting his capacity to perform productive work. In reference to efficacy, it is in relation to metaphysical efficacy that pertains to man’s basic relationship to reality, and which reflects the reality-oriented nature of his thinking process, and not man’s effectiveness in specific areas of endeavour resulting from particular knowledge and skills he has acquired.

Self-Esteem and Pleasure

It is imperative to note that pleasure is not a luxury as often it has been highlighted by many authors rather it’s a profound psychological need.

Pleasure (in the widest sense of the term) is a metaphysical concomitant of life, the reward and consequence of successful action—just as pain is the insignia of failure, destruction, death.

Through the state of enjoyment, man experiences the value of life, the sense that life is worth living, worth struggling to maintain. In order to live, man must act to achieve values. Pleasure or enjoyment is at once an emotional payment for successful action and