989 Self-Esteem--were we all duped?

This article on self-esteem was published about two months ago, but I just came across it. Written by John Fischer, "Forget about Self-Esteem" points out that there is no research to support that the mantra of the last 30 years about the importance of high self-esteem is at all valid.

"I read this article with jaw-dropping amazement at the matter-of-fact nature in which all this was stated. “A generation — and many millions of dollars — later,” Baumeister writes, “it turns out we may have been mistaken.” That sounds awfully hollow after thirty years of a lie. If psychologists are the secular priests of our generation, then it’s as if they are confessing to us they’ve been following the wrong god for the last thirty years, and are now recommending we switch religions with about the same level of compassion for leading us astray as Britney Spears expressed in her early hit “Oops!... I Did It Again.” "

Fischer concludes that our own realization of the hollowness of this "religion of self-esteem" may account for the success of Rick Warren's book. "It's not about you," Warren asserts.

"The central message of Purpose Driven Life is that true meaning in life is found in discovering we were made to worship God and serve one another, and the happiest lives are going to be spent in focusing outwardly instead of inwardly. It’s as if a generation has been trying to find itself and someone has come along and said: Listen up folks. You’re looking in the wrong place. You don’t find yourself by looking inside, you find yourself by looking out, and finding your place in the wider scheme of what we know as God’s will. Or, to put it in Jesus’ words, “He who would lose his life for my sake will find it.” "