Psychobabble

MYTH 1

The root of all your problems is low self-esteem

‘High self-esteem isn’t a luxury’, insists Jack Canfield, author of popular-psychology classic Chicken Soup for the Soul, ‘It’s a necessity for anyone who has important goals to achieve.’ These days Canfield is preaching to the converted. The catalogue of personal and societal ills now laid at the door of low self-esteem is extensive. Over the years, poor self-esteem has been implicated in aggressive behaviour, underachievement in the classroom and workplace, teenage pregnancy and obesity – in fact, almost every undesirable or pathological behaviour you may care to think of.

In therapy, it is now taken as read by clients and therapists alike that issues of self-esteem underlie many ...