Methods for “raising self-esteem” and Christianity

From a Christian point of view, these methods are a means of nurturing pride, selfishness and selfishness, which is fundamentally contrary to the Christian teaching of humility, meekness and love. The Internet is full of suggestions for psycho-training to increase self-esteem, but you will not find there any suggestions for lowering self-esteem, although people with unreasonably high self-esteem are huge.

There are a large number of highly qualified Orthodox psychologists in Russia, and it is constantly increasing.

For prof. VI Slobodchikov, prof. B.S. Bratus, prof. L. F. Shekhovtsova, prof. M.I. Volovikova, М.N. Mironova, I.N. Moshkova and other Orthodox psychologists, the doors of theological schools are always open. This evolving personal interaction between priests and Orthodox psychologists is a very important basis for productive dialogue, but still it is not enough to talk about overcoming all conceptual contradictions and problems in the field of interaction of Orthodox pastoral care and psychology.

We did a little research on the internet. When searching for trainings to increase self-esteem, Google gave 221 thousand results, and Yandex – more than 4 million. Then we tried to find trainings to lower self-esteem. Both search engines began to persuade us that a mistake had been made and that the word “decrease” should be replaced by “increase.” After it became clear that our wording was correct, they gave 113 thousand and 2 million results, respectively, which again offered training and tools to increase self-esteem.

Absolutely nothing was found on the Internet to lower self-esteem. It turns out that people suffer only from low self-esteem, and from high – never. Yet life, Christian and pastoral experiences show us that this is not true at all. There are a lot of people with high self-esteem, but no one intends to treat them.

Attempts to find training to acquire meekness and humility also yielded zero results. We didn’t look for love training because search engines would give millions of directions to lewd sites.

It is obvious that the existing psychological methods for raising self-esteem cannot be reconciled with the Christian doctrine of humility and meekness. This problem is a topic of very serious discussion by psychologists and theologians (Leonov Vadim, prot. Psychological projections of the Christian concept of love for oneself and one’s neighbor // Individual, national and global in the consciousness of a modern person: new ideas, problems, scientific directions. M .: Publishing house “Institute of Psychology RAS”, 2020, p. 595-615).

Attitude towards sacrifice and altruism

In psychology, the topic of “victim complex”, “victim syndrome” is constantly chewed. Sacrifice is seen as a neurotic condition that needs psychocorrection or treatment. One of the articles on this topic, as one of the hallmarks of this deviant behavior according to the author, mentions the words used by the client: “this is my cross”.

And one of the reasons for the “sacrifice complex” is the “propaganda of” sacrifice “in some religious and moral-philosophical teachings, where suffering is seen in a positive aspect, for example as a way to purify the soul, the ability to endure hardships. seen as a positive quality, and the role of the victim is encouraged ”(Victim Syndrome, Victimogenic Syndrome).

Christianity is not mentioned here, but it 100% meets this definition.

Indeed, the theme of “sacrifice” is key to the Christian worldview and filled with positive content. Imagine for a second: what would have happened if the Savior had taken the views of modern psychologists? Would he climb the Cross then? Christian love is sacrificial in nature. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), the Scriptures say. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

Quotes can be given much more. If we agree with the negative attitude of modern psychology to sacrifice, we risk not only not understanding the feat of Christ, but also losing the very essence of Christianity. This is a deep value problem and it inevitably arises when comparing modern psychology and Orthodox pastoral care.