The bumptious Kimberly Guilfoyle and the master ridiculist Greg Gutfeld were recently in televised disputation over the concept of self-esteem. Guilfoyle asserted that self-esteem is necessary and important. Contrarian Gutfeld pointed out that convicted felons have been known to have very high self-esteem.  Self-esteem describes an aspect of the psychological connection a person has with himself or herself. High self-esteem reflects a lofty estimation of one's worth, abilities, rights and value; low self-esteem indicates a depressed estimation of those attributes. Self-esteem is a generally stable self-evaluation, but it can drop after a strong disappointment or blow to the self-image. The defining tenets of humanism are that, in the absence of eternal and universal truth, all persons must be their own guide and find their own truth. It follows then, in humanistic psychology, that high self-esteem is indispensable to motivate and energize the self-directed search for...(Read Full Post)