Should there be such a thing? Can it be reconciled with the faith? What is the Catholic "self-esteem"?

Catholic self-esteem?  That's a new one.  Where did you hear it or read it?

Maintaining a just sense of one's own worth is important when one is confronted by dishonest people who wish to take advantage of self-effacing people.  

There are many such people who always have the word "pride" and "humility" on their lips: and it's never about themselves, it's about you.  That problem is found among certain trads.

In the broader society, there are people who believe in maintaining always a cocksure attitude that is typically disrespectful, puts on airs, and makes a habit of denigrating others.

While humility is a great virtue, Catholics must be careful in recognizing that social aggressors try to take advantage of humility to aggrandize themselves.

For that reason people should try to maintain a just estimation of their own worth.

For the same reason a person should not permit an employer to deprive them of a just wage.

A person should have a just estimation of his own worth.

Should there be such a thing? Can it be reconciled with the faith? What is the Catholic "self-esteem"?

So many of these modern psych terms get tossed around and who knows what they mean!    

I've only heard one thing that makes any sense:  

basic idea was, whatever your values are, if you are true to them, that will support your self-esteem, if you aren't, that will undermine your self-esteem.

So, the problem there is sort of obvious:  it is too tolerant.  It's sort of like the all paths lead to god thing, so you just need to be true to your path to find "enlightenment" or "nirvana" or "self-actualization" or "self-esteem" or "contentment" or whatever.  But, that's just not true, because there is only one truth, not many truths.  

 

On page 28-29 in "The Unicorn in the Sancturay", by Randy England, explains how New Agers teach self-esteem to bring us to Pride the great sin.  Saints strive for humility, no self-esteem.  

Catholic self-esteem:  I am a Catholic by the grace of God.  Our Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins and comes to me in Holy Communion, despite my unworthiness, out of his ocean of divine love and mercy.

What more could we need?

That sums it up, Viva Cristo Rey.

 :applause:

I am not sure what self-esteem is. It is a rather arbitrary word that has little meaning.

Self-love is a better word. A lot of people believe that self-love is inherently evil, though this is a false notion. Strictly speaking, a well-ordered self-love is actually necessary for charity, as Clare just said when she quoted Our Lord, "Love thy neighbor as THYSELF."

 In fact, self-hate is ultimately a sin against the 3rd commandment, Honour thy father and thy mother. To put yourself down as worthless and not of much value is to say that your parents created something worthless in their union together, and so you are doing them a grave injustice. I'd dare say it would be similar to vandalizing the Sistine chapel, right in front of Michelangelo, who above all else would see the beauty of his own work.

Where humility actually comes in, is that ultimately there is nothing that you can take credit for completely in what you accomplish in life. E.g. Intelligence is a gift from the creator, so if you happen to have it, you can take pride in it, but pride in the fact that it is an example of the intelligence of the Creator, not because it is who you are. You are not your intelligence; it can be taken away from you at any time. One seizure and it's all over. Where humility is really reconciled with self-love, is that you are special and lovable ultimately for only one reason: you exist. Your talents and gifts are insignificant and worthless in comparison to the fact that God sees you and finds it good that you exist. To declare yourself worthless is in a way a sin of idolatry; it means that you have the audacity to claim that you know better than God your own worth; that God created something that was not good or lovable.

If anyone wants to know more about the philosophical aspects of love (which I personally think to be the most important topic in philosophy) I highly recommend reading Josef Piper's "About Love" if you can find it. It goes through the concept of love in an easy to understand manner.