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Once the province of "New Age" groups, the self-esteem movement has charged into the American mainstream, with a California taskforce and other groups citing a lack of self-esteem as the cause of problems ranging from poor grades and poverty to serious crime and drug addiction. While cheerfully endorsing various quick-fix techniques for raising self-esteem, the movement leaves unanswered the fundamental questions of how our notions of ourselves develop in the first place, why they tend to stay firmly in place throughout our lives, and why people with low self-esteem so often find themselves victimized by others.
In this strikingly original book, William Swann dissects the mistaken assumptions that underlie the current self-esteem programs. Drawing on more than a decade of research, much of its own, Swann proposes the concept of "self-traps" as a new way of understanding both the roots and manifestations of low self-esteem. He investigates behavior that has defied explanation by traditional psychological models, such as the regularity with which people suffering from low self-esteem gravitate to relationships in which they are denigrated or abused. Swann convincingly argues that such behavior is the result of our desire to maintain a stable identity by bringing others to see us as we see ourselves, even when we view ourselves negatively.
Not a self-help book, Self-Traps is a fascinating, multidimensional exploration of how self-esteem conflicts develop and are played out in all our relationships, and how the authentic achievement of self-esteem is often undermined by American social norms that tell us how to approach our love relationships and work. Swann shows how these societal influences may compound the inner conflicts that people with low self-esteem have, making their thought patterns and behavior that much more difficult to change. Yet raising self-esteem, he insists, is an achievable goal. Swann proposes solutions that take into account the multifaceted nature of self-esteem and allow us to perform a delicate balancing act, changing our notions of who we are without irreparably losing our fundamental sense of identity.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.