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Self Esteem

Long and very interesting article on the man who challenged the American notion of what high self-esteem can do for a person. It talks about how schools have used grade inflation and elimination of academic awards to help shore up kids with low self esteem. Towards the middle of the article is a quote that I really liked

A drug such as cocaine may create a euphoric feeling without one’s having to actually experience events that normally bring pleasure, fooling the nervous system into responding as if circumstances were good. In the same way, cognitively inflating one’s self-image is a way of fooling the natural sociometer mechanism into thinking one is a valued relational partner.

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