What exactly is self-esteem? Most people, as well as many psychologists and educators, believe we need it, that it's good for our emotional well-being, and that it makes us more successful. World-renowned psychologist Albert Ellis says no, it's all a myth. According to Ellis, self-esteem is probably the greatest emotional disturbance known to humans. Self-esteem results in each of us praising ourselves when what we do is approved by others. But we also damn ourselves when we don't do well enough and others disapprove of us. What we need more than self-esteem, Ellis maintains, is self-acceptance! In "The Myth of Self-Esteem", Ellis provides a lively and insightful explanation of self-esteem and self-acceptance, examining the thinking of great religious teachers, philosophers, and psychologists, including Lao Tsu, Jesus, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Buber, Heidegger, Sartre, Tillich, DT Suzuki, the Dalai Lama, Carl Rogers, and Nathaniel Branden, among others. He then provides exercises for training oneself to change self-defeating habits to the healthy, positive approach of self-acceptance. These include specific thinking techniques as well as emotive and behavioural exercises.
He concludes by stressing that unconditional self-acceptance is the basis for establishing healthy relationships with others, along with unconditional other-acceptance and a total philosophy of life anchored in unconditional life-acceptance.
What exactly is self-esteem? Most people, as well as many psychologists and educators, believe we need it, that it's good for our emotional well-being, and that it makes us more successful. World-renowned psychologist Albert Ellis says no, it's all a myth. According to Ellis, self-esteem is probably the greatest emotional disturbance known to humans. Self-esteem results in each of us praising ourselves when what we do is approved by others. But we also damn ourselves when we don't do well enough and others disapprove of us. What we need more than self-esteem, Ellis maintains, is self-acceptance! In "The Myth of Self-Esteem", Ellis provides a lively and insightful explanation of self-esteem and self-acceptance, examining the thinking of great religious teachers, philosophers, and psychologists, including Lao Tsu, Jesus, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Buber, Heidegger, Sartre, Tillich, DT Suzuki, the Dalai Lama, Carl Rogers, and Nathaniel Branden, among others. He then provides exercises for training oneself to change self-defeating habits to the healthy, positive approach of self-acceptance. These include specific thinking techniques as well as emotive and behavioural exercises.
He concludes by stressing that unconditional self-acceptance is the basis for establishing healthy relationships with others, along with unconditional other-acceptance and a total philosophy of life anchored in unconditional life-acceptance.
Albert Ellis, PhD (1913-2007) practiced psychotherapy, marriage and family counseling, and sex therapy for over sixty years. He was the author of more than eighty books, including many popular best sellers. Other books by Albert Ellis available from Prometheus Books are: The Myth of Self-Esteem; The Road to Tolerance; Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy: It Works for Me--It Can Work for You; Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy; and (with Raymond J. Yeager) Why Some Therapies Don't Work: The Dangers of Transpersonal Psychology.
""[A] stimulating examination of how the teachings of the world’s
greatest thinkers and philosophers dovetail (or don’t) with Ellis’s
three core concepts: unconditional acceptance of the self, others
and the world....The book, which includes multiple self-acceptance
exercises, may be among his best: Every page offers a fresh insight
into rational emotive behavior therapy, Ellis’s doctrine of modern
stoicism.”
—Psychology Today
“Albert Ellis is a contemporary prophet whose ideas will be
remembered along with those of Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu and Sartre.
In this important book, he shows how to develop self-acceptance as
well as to learn how to create healthy relationships. In a world of
increasing involvement with machines (i.e., computers, televisions,
video games) and decreasing involvement with people, nothing could
be more needed.”
—Jon Carlson, PsyD, EdD, ABPP
Distinguished Professor, Governors State University
“This wonderful book, as it helps us move toward greater compassion
for ourselves, for others, and for our troubled world, is one more
significant contribution by Dr. Ellis—not only toward greater
personal happiness, but also toward a better world.”
—Howard C. Cutler, M.D.
coauthor (with the Dalai Lama) of The Art of Happiness, A Handbook
for Living
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