From the author: What is self-esteem? How is self-esteem related to self-concept? Norms of self-esteem (high - low and high - low self-esteem). Working with self-esteem. Trying to find out what self-esteem is and what its “norm” is, the seeker will encounter two completely different approaches: 1.) some experts believe that the higher the self-esteem, the better and there is no limit to high self-esteem; 2.) others, that there is an adequate level of self-esteem, and deviations of self-esteem from this level are deviations from the norm (high and low self-esteem). Sometimes this confusion even creeps into academic textbooks on psychology, where one chapter talks about self-esteem, as about self-acceptance and, as a consequence, its endless development, and in the next chapter about high, low and adequate self-esteem. To understand this issue it is necessary first turn to another category similar to self-esteem, “self-concepts”. Self-concept is the totality of all ideas and attitudes of a person towards himself, associated with their assessment. A synonym for “I-concept” is the term “I-image”. And now attention: a person’s ideas about himself can be both rational and emotional. Rational (or it would be more correct to say cognitive) ideas about himself are an attempt to objectively assess himself, “What kind of person am I really?” Let's call this the “Objective image of myself,” which will include ideas about my abilities, qualities, traits, etc. Emotional ideas about myself are, in essence, an emotional attitude towards myself (what emotions do I feel for myself, do I like myself or not, love or not, etc.), an attempt to subjectively evaluate oneself. Let's call this the “Subjective Self-Image”, which is responsible for the level of self-acceptance, assessment of one’s “goodness” (“Okness”), self-love. So, we have two components of the “Self-Image”: “Objective Self-Image” and “Subjective Self-Image” " Now it is desirable to find the criteria for the “normality” of each of these components of the image. If the “Objective image of the Self” is responsible for assessing who I really am, then the criterion of “norm” in this case will be the most objective assessment, the correspondence of the “Objective image of the Self” with reality. Deviations from this norm can be both downward and upward: an inflated “Objective image of the Self,” when a person overestimates his qualities, abilities, etc.; underestimated “Objective image of the Self”, when a person underestimates his qualities, abilities, etc. At the same time, the “Subjective Image of the Self” is responsible for the level of emotional acceptance of the Self, and then its criterion of “normality” will be +∞ (there is never enough self-love ☺☻). I think many readers have already guessed where the confusion in definitions came from self-esteem. Some people identify self-esteem with the “Objective image of the Self,” and in this case we talk about adequate, low and high self-esteem. Others identify self-esteem with the “Subjective Image of Self,” and then we can talk about insufficiently high self-esteem as a deviation from the norm. In principle, neither one nor the other approach is “right” or “wrong”; here we are dealing with elementary terminological confusion. It is important to take into account both components of the “Image”: both objective and subjective. In my practice, I prefer to call the “Objective self-image” self-esteem (preserving the concepts of adequate, low and inflated self-esteem), and the “Subjective self-image” self-worth (the ideal of which lies, theoretically, at infinity). I have not seen any scientific research on this topic, but most likely the “Objective image of the Self” and the “Subjective image of the Self” are not independent, but influence each other. So (I will use my own preferences in terminology), if a person has low self-worth, then this can manifest itself in attempts to compensate by inflating self-esteem (“perfectionism” and “narcissism” as attempts to compensate for the lack of self-love), or vice versa, in low self-esteem ( assessing oneself as a failure and unworthy, as a direct manifestation of insufficient self-love). I use in/!