About self esteem.

Try this: Go to www.self-esteem-nase.org. There you'll find the soul of the anxious West. "I'm sitting here shattered," says Matthew. "I don't know who I am anymore or what I want," says Marion. What is extraordinary about this website is not the anguished messages it contains--expressing existential human misery--but that all its visitors share the conviction they are suffering from a single problem that has a single solution. They believe they are suffering from low self-esteem and that the only cure is the attainment of high self-esteem.

"I think self-esteem issues are a lot like alcoholism or sexual abuse," says Sarah. "It's often a secret or ignored." Oh, please. Self-esteem issues are about as secret as Coca Cola; and like Coke, the popular prescriptions for treating them have become global commodities many people believe will save their souls. In the past quarter century, more than 2,000 books have been written on the subject, making the apostles of the self-help religion rich beyond their wildest dreams. In advice columns, talk-shows, pop-psychology books, in local school boards and in the halls of academe, self-esteem has become the grail that promises to free us all from depression, discrimination, drug, alcohol and sexual abuse, unwanted pregnancy, and criminal behaviour.

The truth is that the core belief of this mushrooming faith--that self-satisfaction can produce happiness--is a lie. But such world-wide gullibility wasn't established overnight. It has taken more than a century of proselytising to convert the world to its current level of soft-headedness.

In 1890, William James first tried to define the idea of self-esteem in his Principles of Psychology. Then, in the early 20th century, with Freud and Jung, the self came into its own. In the 1920s, the world was further softened up by French psychologist Emile Coue who invented the concept of self-affirmation through autosuggestion. It was Coue who encouraged people to feel better about themselves by chanting over and over: "Every day in every way, I am getting better and better." On this mantra--belief in your own self-worth as the path to mental health--today's cult of self-esteem is based.

With Oprah encouraging her disciples to 'dream big and live fully' and Anthony Robbins daring his readers to unleash their 'inner giants', the cult is worth billions. And the Western world is now convinced that everyone has a right to feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, the concept hasn't been completely effective as countless enthusiasts, burdened perhaps by troubled consciences, are asking therapists why they're still feeling bad about themselves. Missing from the equation, of course, is any concept of sin, fallenness or even natural imperfection. Also absent, and colossally so, is public recognition that high self-esteem did not turn Hitler, Stalin or Mao into nice guys.

Which prompts the question: is self-esteem a good thing? Everything Jesus taught runs counter to the Gospel of Self-esteem. Since Christian teaching contradicts this worldly philosophy, is it any wonder then that ordinary people trying to practise both religions simultaneously are feeling deeply conflicted?

Recently, I've been re-reading Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, the antithesis of the modern self-help book. It's a book of the spiritual facts of life. Here is what it says about man's natural instincts and motivations which, if acknowledged, provide him with little to be smug or self-righteous about:

"Nature is crafty and draws away many; she ensnares and deceives them, and always proposes self as her end. Nature is not willing to be mortified, to be restrained, to be overcome; neither of its own accord will it be brought under obedience. Nature works for its own interest, and considers what gain it may derive from another. Nature willingly receives honour and respect. Nature is afraid of shame and contempt.

"Nature loves ease and bodily repose. Nature has regard to temporal things, rejoices at earthly gains, is troubled at losses, is irritated at every harsh word. Nature is covetous, and likes to take rather than give. Nature willingly receives exterior comfort in which the senses may be gratified. Nature does all for her own gain and interest. Nature easily complains of want and of trouble. Nature turns all things to self, and contends and disputes for self. Nature thirsts for knowledge of secrets; it desires to be seen abroad and to experience things by the senses; it longs to be taken notice of and to do those things which may win praise and admiration."

An uncomfortably accurate picture of man's inner drives, is it not?

So much for the Gospel of self-esteem and its delusionary comforts. Seems to me we've all got a lot to be humble about.

Paula Adamick writes from London, England, where she publishes the monthly expatriate paper, the Canada Post.