This is http://www.essayz.com/a8807091.htm         
Previous-Essay      <== This-Essay ==>     Following-Essay
Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words.
{Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.}
==========================================================
 %LOST CONFIDENCE SELF ESTEEM AUTHOR OWN EXPERIENCE 880709

     It  is dangerous to the integrity of a community  for
its members to learn that they can not trust the authority
of their own experiences;  that some external authority is
trustworthy  to  the  exclusion  of  trusting  one's   own
experiences.    Such  lessons  may  be  learned  from   an
authoritarian   community  which  seeks  to  control   the
behavior  of  its members in keeping  with  some  communal
sense of propriety;  i.e., to get members of the community
to conform to proper patterns of behavior.

     People who are trained to conform with confidence  in
external  authority  to  the exclusion  of  confidence  in
personal experiences lose self confidence and self esteem;
the   boundaries  between  themselves  and  others  become
blurred and confused.   Such people lose confidence in the
authenticity  of personal experiences and so come to doubt
not  only  their own experiences,  but come to  doubt  the
authenticity of other people's experiences.   How can they
reasonably  trust other people's experiences if  they  can
not trust their own experiences?

     If  you lack confidence in the authority of your  own
experiences,  upon what authority can one have confidence
in the propriety of the rules,  regulations,   traditions,
expectations,   etc.   which experience has taught you  to
trust  with greater confidence than you have in  your  own
experiences.   Which of your own experiences can you trust
and  honestly  consider with personal integrity once  your
community   has   taught  you  to  conform   to   external
expectations without concern for personal integrity?

     When members of a community have been taught to  lack
concern for their own personal integrity those persons can
not  with integrity show concern for the the integrity  of
the  community  as  a whole;  teaching  children  to  lack
concern   for  their  personal  integrity  undermines  the
integrity  of the community with which the children  shall
be entrusted.  Neither personal nor communal integrity can
be neglected without undermining the other.  Confidence in
the authority of one's own experiences is essential to the
integrity  of the community.   In the absence of such self
confidence/esteem  people  become  addicted  to  collusive
patterns  of thought and behavior which undermine communal
integrity.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
==========================================================