An Existential Basis for Self-esteem
By Sucharit Katyal, Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen
Abstract
Considering oneself worthy is consequential to nearly every aspect of life – including mental and physical wellbeing, healthy social functioning, and more generally to pursuing life goals. What a person evaluates as their overall worth as an individual is called self-esteem. Self-esteem is one of the most influential constructs across social and psychological sciences.
Typically, people form their self-esteem based on what they or others think of them in various domains of life that are considered valuable by the society or by themselves. Such a psychological origin of self-esteem is based on a utilitarian view of self-worth – i.e., one is worthy if they have some (perceived) utility in the world. Here, I introduce a novel psychological concept, existential self-esteem, where an individual can base their self-worth beyond perceived utility and on the fact of their very existence. I situate existential self-esteem within Shri Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar’s philosophy of Neohumanism according to which the existential worth of an individual should be considered as being derived directly from the Cosmic Consciousness, the Universal source of all worth. I discuss how existential self-esteem can be cultivated through meditation and spiritual practices. Finally, I propose that cultivating an existential sense of self-esteem could play an important role in alleviating mental health issues widespread in society today.
Self-esteem
Self-esteem can be defined as how worthy a person considers themselves overall as an individual. Dating back to over a hundred years, self-esteem has been one of the most influential concepts in psychology and social sciences. Based on a large volume of research we now know that people who hold themselves in high self-esteem go on to have better mental wellbeing, physical health, social functioning, academic and work outcomes and lower criminality in the future, compared to people with low self-esteem1. At the same time low self-esteem is a core symptom of anxiety and depression, which are both now widespread in the population as part of a global mental health epidemic2.
What underlies self-esteem
Psychologists have long tried to understand factors based on which a person constructs their sense of self-esteem. An influential idea is that each person forms their self-esteem by relying on certain domains or combination of domains that they find relevant or consistent with their values. These domains on which one bases their self-esteem are called contingencies of self-worth3. One common contingency of self-worth is social approval, or what other people think of the person, which that person uses as a measure of their self-worth. Such a contingency may be common, for example, among the youth of today who rely heavily on peer feedback to their social media profiles to gauge their own worth. Others may base their self-esteem on specific competencies – for examples, on how good they are at their work, academics, sports, or even at fulfilling their ethical and moral obligations. Yet others, may base their self-esteem on spiritual or religious beliefs or ideas – such as, unconditional love of God/Supreme Being.
It is known that people whose self-esteem relies on factors like social feedback or performance-related outcomes tend to have relatively unstable self-esteem.4 In other words, their self-esteem fluctuates depending on things like their expectations from others, what feedback they get, and how well they think they have performed. Alternatively, people whose self-esteem relies on more secure ideas of self-worth would have a more stable self-esteem. Such secure self-worth, for example, could be based in strong convictions of an unconditionally loving God or humanistic philosophical views where one’s existence itself is considered a worthy phenomenon.
Neohumanism and existential worth
Several philosophers and philosophical schools have promoted the idea that there is inherent worth in existing irrespective of what a person does, including Emmanuel Kant, Søren Kierkergaard, as well as a number of schools of Indian philosophy. This idea finds its clearest expression in the works of Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) who propounded the philosophy of Neohumanism. According to Neohumanism, every living being—including all humans, animals and plants—has existential value irrespective of their utility value.
“… each and every living entity, whether plant or animal, has two types of value: one, its utility value, and the other, its existential value.”
– from the discourse Pseudo-Humanism in The Liberation of Intellect: Neohumanism5
In other words, all living beings are existentially worthy irrespective of what they do and how their actions impact others. This idea is situated within Shrii Sarkar’s larger panentheistic philosophy and cosmology where the entire Universe is an expression of the Supreme Being/Cosmic Consciousness. He calls the process of the Cosmic Consciousness expressing itself as the Universe, ‘Macropsychic Conation,’ where each living being or microcosm exists because the Cosmic Consciousness (or Macrocosm) is “thinking” of them within its Cosmic Mind.
“… the Macrocosm also cannot remain without thinking. It is bound to think of something; it thinks of its created objects. A microcosm, a unit being, may think, “I am an insignificant person, I am not educated, I have neither intellect nor erudition nor wealth. Does Parama Puruśa [Cosmic Consciousness] think of me also? – Me, a very small insignificant microcosm?” They should remember that Parama Puruśa not only does think of them, He is bound to think of them by force of circumstances. Parama Puruśa cannot think, “These are just very ordinary human beings merely managing to make both ends meet – I can’t think of them!” He cannot think like this, because by providential decree the Macrocosm is bound to think of His created objects – He cannot forget them… So you understand that you are not at all insignificant: your existential value is very great.”
– from the discourse Macropsychic Conation and Micropsychic Longings from Subháśita Saḿgraha Part 186
In this way, each expression derives its value and worth directly from the Cosmic Consciousness or Parama Purusa. And they have the potential to realise their greatness by considering themselves existentially worthy:
“In this universe all entities are divine; only people have to realize it. Nobody is helpless or alone in this universe. We have mundane, supramundane and spiritual relationships with the universe. So it is the bounden duty of human beings to expand their mental arena because basically all finite entities have the inherent wont of universal pervasion. Their goal is the Supreme Entity who is free from limitations. Human beings will have to expand themselves so much that they will go beyond the fetters of limitations. There cannot be and should not be an inferiority or superiority complex in anybody. ”
– from the discourse Universality in Race, Language, Religion and Culture in A Few Problems Solved Part 67
Notably, each individual’s existential worth is not one that is collectively zero sum. In other words, one person or living being does not become worthy at the cost of another, as may be the case for utility value. Instead, recognition of existential worth naturally involves a balanced mental attitude that does not consider oneself either superior or inferior to another individual:
“Most people suffer from either a superiority complex or an inferiority complex. A balanced state of mind is one of the most essential qualities that one should possess. It is that state in which a person does not suffer from any complex, that is, neither from superiority complex nor from inferiority complex, neither from fear complex nor from hate complex. People should be free from each and every kind of complex”
– from the discourse The Social Order and Superiority and Inferiority Complexes in Ánanda Vacanámrtam Part 58
Existential self-worth and its cultivation
From the psychological perspective of self-esteem, it is not sufficient to only philosophically embrace the idea of existential worth. It is also important to transform this philosophical idea into a psychological attitude or belief about oneself (and others), and where one evaluates one’s self-worth (and others’ self-worth) from an existentialist perspective.* As mentioned above, such an attitude may be present in people who establish their self-esteem in ideas such as unconditional God’s love3. However, it is also possible to train one’s mind to cultivate an existential sense of self-worth.
It is known that practicing meditation can lead to higher self-esteem9, 10 and a more secure sense of self-worth11. This more secure yet high self-esteem may be rooted in an existential sense of self-worth. Particularly noteworthy here is the meditation approach taught by Shrii Sarkar, known as Ananda Marga Tantra Yoga. These practices place a strong emphasis on existential self-worth, as consistent with Shrii Sarkar’s philosophical ideas mentioned above. In this system of meditation, a practitioner meditates on the idea that she/he is an integral part of Cosmic Consciousness while trying to merge their sense of individuality (or unit consciousness) into a sense of Cosmic Consciousness12. As practice progresses, this meditative process involves developing a personal inner relationship with Cosmic Consciousness – for example, akin to a parent (Cosmic Consciousness) and child (unit consciousness). Through such practices, a meditator gets established in the idea that their worth is derived directly from a transcendental, universal and existential source of worth, i.e., Cosmic Consciousness.
I conducted a research study investigating how long-term Ananda Marga meditation may alter how people think about themselves compared to demographically matched healthy individuals who do not meditate8. Here, participants were shown a number of both positive and negative affective adjectives (e.g., capable, confident, anxious, fearful, etc.) to which they had to respond whether the adjectives described them or not. Self-esteem is measured as a global affective evaluation of oneself. People with high self-esteem evaluate themselves overall higher on positive traits and lower on negative traits compared to those with low self-esteem. In the study, we found that Ananda Marga meditators self-endorsed overall more positive and fewer negative adjectives than non-meditators indicating higher self-esteem. Besides asking people to respond to the words, we also measured participants’ brain activity while they were making these responses and observed something very interesting. While non-meditators’ brain response was stronger for negative compared to positive words, Ananda Marga meditators’ brain response did not differ between positive and negative words. In other words, despite exhibiting a higher self-esteem (i.e., higher positive and lower negative self-evaluation), the meditators’ brain reacted similarly to positive and negative words. This appears to reflect the existential mental approach that Ananda Marga meditators try to cultivate through their practices where they treat both positive and negative aspects of themselves as expressions of the Cosmic Consciousness. Such an approach allows them to potentially experience positive and negative self-attributes from a somewhat distanced stance where they are situated within a larger (Cosmic) context rather than in relation to their individual egos.
Thus, an existential perspective of self-esteem is something that a person may be able to cultivate through meditation practices and spiritual outlooks.**
Existential self-esteem – a potential solution to the mental health crisis
Mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and depression, are now widespread around the world with around 4% of the global population suffering from such disorders2. It is well known that low self-esteem is a core feature of such mental health disorders. Indeed, people with anxiety and depression exhibit fundamental cognitive distortions in forming beliefs about themselves that would contribute to a persistently low self-esteem, as I have found in my recent work14.
Further, a majority of people these days, particularly youth, spend a significant amount of time on social media. A common aspect of social media presence is to share content with others in an attempt to attract feedback and attention from others. People who rely too much on what others think of them are likely to exhibit unstable self-esteem, making them vulnerable to mental ill health.
In such scenarios, constructing a sense of self-worth on existential principles – i.e., “I am worthy because I exist” – may play a key role in promoting positive mental health.
Conclusion
In this article, I introduce a novel psychological concept called existential self-esteem, where an individual’s self-worth is based in the non-contingent factor of their very existence. I discuss how existential self-esteem is situated within Shri Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar’s philosophy of Neohumanism. I discuss how existential self-esteem may be cultivated through meditation and spiritual practices. Finally, I propose that cultivating an existential self-esteem could help alleviate mental health issues widespread in society.
Notes
* While the idea of existential worth can be applied in praxis both in relation to oneself and others, here I focus my treatment of it to oneself because of its relation to self-esteem and mental health.
** Another promising avenue for cultivating existential self-worth maybe through novel forms of therapy, like the one based in existential positive psychology13.
References
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