Nowadays we hear a great deal about a strange quality known as "self-esteem." Much of the delinquency we observe, especially in youngsters, is loosely attributed to a deficiency of that virtue, rendering them easily led by others and uncritical of their own actions.
Self-esteem is defined as the extent to which individuals think of themselves. It depends upon a self-image, which is the complete set of thoughts which people have about their work, their social status, their outward appearance and their personality quirks.
Behaviour designed to influence the impression we are likely to make on other people is designated by psychologists "self-presentation." This is a complex structure involving clothes, manners, speech, and a variety of non-verbal elements. Attempts to create a self-portrait solely from spoken or written communications is rarely successful in a society which has been educated to criticise the crude claims of an individual taking up a pose, as politicians discover very often to their cost. Other aspects of behaviour have to be considered. There are, of course, limits to self-presentation, since if it can be demonstrated as inflated by an opponent the result will be personal embarrassment which in turn causes social anxiety, defective social performance, and the loss of that very self-esteem which it seeks to compensate.
One common method of bolstering self-esteem is for the individual to convince himself or herself of appearing sexually attractive to others. This approach has strict limits, and is most often adopted by people in the world of entertainment. It is fairly obvious that such a solution to the lack of self-esteem may easily backfire, with disastrous consequences.
There is another complication. The psychologist William James pointed out in a book entitled ‘Psychology: The briefer course' (1892) that in fact we present as many self-portraits as people with whom we interact socially, and this suggests that we may possess multiple personalities. If we accept that we enter deep waters.