02: Stepping Stones to Self-Esteem

The self-esteem movement of the 1970s got one thing profoundly wrong. It treated self-esteem as a vitamin you give to yourself with affirmations in the mirror, and it told generations of parents to flood their kids with praise. Dr. Lisle argues the mechanism was never designed to be fooled that easily, and the people trying hardest to fake it are usually the ones suffering most.

In this episode, Dr. Doug Lisle walks through the evolutionary architecture of self-esteem. He explains Mark Leary's sociometer research, why depression is a signaling device rather than a disease, the critical distinction between esteem and self-esteem, and his own concept of the internal audience. He lays out the three domains where humans compete for status (mating, friendship, trade), why self-esteem is domain-specific rather than global, and the exact fundamentals you can practice to raise the internal audience's regard on a daily basis.

Beat Your Genes is co-hosted by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, PhD and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld, DC.

New episodes every other week.

YouTube: youtube.com/@BeatYourGenes

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Doug Lisle: esteemdynamics.com

Nathan Gershfeld: fastingescape.com

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Intro and outro: City of Happy Ones. Ferenc Hegedus. Licensed for use. Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast