"The world of popular psychological ideas, which is largely the self-help industry, is not short of contradictions. For instance, it simultaneously promotes the benefits of emotional intelligence (the ability to empathize with others and engage in strategic impression management) and authenticity (the tendency to express what you really feel and think without much consideration for others' opinions). It also frequently celebrates self-acceptance and constant self-improvement ("love yourself as you are"..."
"mindfulness and relentless ambition ("stay in the zone, present and serene"... while hustling aggressively toward big goals), and even self-awareness and self-belief, which pull in opposite psychological directions. Self-awareness requires confronting your flaws, limitations, and blind spots with brutal honesty; self-belief requires ignoring at least some of that evidence to maintain high-levels of confidence, optimism, and drive. One asks you to see yourself clearly; the other asks you to believe in yourself despite what you see."
Popular psychological and self-help messages often present opposing virtues as absolute goods: emotional intelligence versus authenticity, self-acceptance versus relentless improvement, mindfulness versus aggressive ambition, and self-awareness versus self-belief. Human tendency favors categorizing traits as fully good or bad, but most qualities function through a yin-yang balance. Aristotle's golden mean locates virtue between two vices, showing that too much or too little of a trait causes dysfunction. Consequently, psychological strengths are dose-dependent, and neither side of common pairings is inherently superior; effective behavior hinges on balancing competing tendencies.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]