MAKING PEOPLE FEEL GOOD ABOUT THEMSELVES:

BRITISH SOCIAL POLICY AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PROBLEM OF SELF-ESTEEM

By Frank Furedi

Inaugural lecture – 24 January 2003

In the United Kingdom, self-esteem has acquired the cultural status of a taken-for-granted problem that afflicts the individual and society alike.

Low self-esteem is invariably presented as an invisible disease that undermines people's ability to control their lives. When in a famous television interview, the late Princess Diana informed the British public of her secret disease bulimia, her audience knew what she meant when she stated that 'you inflict it upon yourself because your self esteem is at a low ebb, and you don't think you're worthy or valuable'. Diana's confession resonated with the common sense that perceives low self-esteem as the principal cause of individual and wider social problems.

Low self-esteem is now associated with virtually every ill that afflicts society. Policy makers, media commentators and experts regularly demand that action should be taken to raise the self esteem of school-children, teen-agers, parents, the elderly, the homeless, the mentally ill, delinquents, the unemployed, those suffering racism, lone parents, to name but a few of the groups experiencing this problem.

The self-esteem deficit is often presented as a condition that transcends the individual and afflicts entire generations and communities. According to one account, school children who turn to drugs come from families 'with generations of lack of self-esteem'. When a local railway station was closed down in Shildon, Co Durham, the manager of the local train museum observed that it represented a 'devastating blow to local self-esteem'. 'Self-esteem seems to be a quality lacking in many sections of the European community', observes an advocate of community learning projects.

Claim makers frequently attempt to justify their concern with a problem by asserting its negative impact on self-esteem. In a statement of support for a Government initiative against domestic violence, Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, pointed out that this act 'can have a devastating impact on people' and that 'it can harm business as the victims often suffer from stress and low-esteem'.

According to a report published by the pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, it is people's 'relationships and self-esteem' which is most affected by sexual health problems'. Anti-poverty campaigners have shifted their focus from the broad structural picture to the impact of these conditions on self-esteem. One recently published study, Hardship Britain: Being poor in the 1990s is self consciously promoted on the ground that it examines the 'experience of poverty and exclusion, and its impact on self-esteem and personal dignity'.

Low self-esteem is not just represented as the consequence of problems such as poverty, racism or domestic violence. It itself is frequently depicted as a cause of social distress. Government agencies continually point to the self-esteem deficit as the source of social problems. ''Whilst there is no single route through which children become involved in prostitution, we know that the most common factors are vulnerability and low self-esteem'' states a briefing document by the Department of Health for Wales. According to Dr Christopher Cordess, a forensic psychiatrist, people who make malicious bomb hoax calls 'will be repeating offenders – men who have very little self-esteem'.

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