Unhappy self-esteem: a meaningful exception to the rule

Self-esteem and well-being are often seen as closely related and sometimes even considered conceptually identical. In marked contrast to this association, the focus of this article is on experiences of a high level of self-esteem coexisting with a low level of well-being: unhappy self-esteem. Although these experiences constitute an exception to the general rule, they nevertheless have a theoretically coherent character. In this article, a framework was used in which the self was considered an organized process, and an idiographic assessment procedure--the method of self-confrontation--was called upon. The self-statements of 15 subjects in the Netherlands showing unhappy self-esteem were compared, and the phenomenon was found to clearly refer to anger and opposition.