Olsen

What if the critics are right, Kysha wonders beside you, her tone easing into something you have never heard from her before, something suddenly taut and authentic, and the self-esteem movement is not only goofy but hazardous?

How so? you ask, watching the plane gaining speed.

What if inflated self-esteem - the kind that comes not from actual achievement but from teachers and parents drumming into kids how great they are - triggers narcissism instead of self-worth?

What if the result of the self-esteem movement isn't a child who applauds him or herself healthfully, but one who stews with hostility and aggression against the world for lying to him or her repeatedly?

(Lance Olsen, "Girl Imagined by Chance," p. 153)