It's amazing the things you can learn from books. Oh yeah. For instance, I've been tracking this social psychologist guy, name of Roy Baumeister, for several years now. I don't mean stalking him, good god no. I mean: following his work. Much of which concerns our collective (and often dead wrong) notions about the so-called self. As my alter-ego blogo-memorex reminds me, I wrote about him on Sunday, October 12, 2003 and and couple-three days later on Tuesday, October 14, 2003 [editor's note: the reader is cautioned about these links; 'nuf said]. In the latter post I noted that Baumeister "seems to have written some interesting stuff on my favorite topic: self esteem. Which is, more often than not, a code-word for a culturally dressed up -- if with still no place to go -- narcissism."

Here's a quick overview of how Baumeister frames the basic concept, and the problem he has with it...

Who had higher self-esteem: Gandhi or Hitler? Columbine High School's 1999 valedictorian or the two Columbine students who, that April, killed a teacher, 12 fellow students, and then themselves? Albert Einstein or Adolph Eichmann? Popeye or Bluto?

No, don't cheat by looking ahead. Put on your thinking cap and have a sharp #2 pencil ready. Do not read the following paragraph until I say GO.

Alright... GO!

If you picked the first person in each pair (the hero/high achiever), you're wrong. The bad guys, not the good guys, have high self esteem. So says Dr. Roy F. Baumeister, whose article, "Violent Pride,'' featured in the April [2001] issue of Scientific American, should be made required reading for every school board member, principal, teacher, therapist and parent in America.

Baumeister, a social scientist at Case Western Reserve University, has studied the relationship between aggression and self-esteem for more than a decade. His findings completely explode the self-esteem mythology that has driven American parenting and education for more than a quarter- century...

People with high self- esteem, says Baumeister, are likely to respond aggressively when their inflated view of themselves is threatened by criticism or perceived insult or when someone obstructs their need for gratification. Gang members have high self-esteem. So do spouse abusers. On a narcissism scale, violent criminals, long thought to be "acting out" low self-esteem, obtained a higher mean score than people in any other category. [emphasis added]

In short: the higher one's self-esteem, the lower one's self-control.

from: Author offers a different take on self-esteem
by John Rosemond
source: Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, 17 April 2001
via: HighBeam Research Copyright © 2001 Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

Three-years-and-change later, Baumeister has a new article in Scientific American on the same theme titled Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth, the sub-slug of which reads: "Boosting people's sense of self-worth has become a national preoccupation. Yet surprisingly, research shows that such efforts are of little value in fostering academic or preventing undesirable behavior."

Kinda makes ya feel humble, don't it?