The findings and recommendations of a three-year study by the 26 member California task force are presented in this report, which includes a separate 24-page section on education, academic failure, and self-esteem. Rejecting the common public misconception of self-esteem as highly individualistic narcissism, the task force adopted its official definition, stressing accountability and acting responsibly as well as self-worth. Best Seller! Illustrated.

The materials in these appendices are offered as a supplement to the findings and recommendation in the final report of a California task force created to promote self-esteem and personal responsibility. They include an extensive bibliography of self-esteem resource materials, a listing of self-esteem program resources, an outline of the work being done by the various county task forces in California, and copies of the legislation relevant to this task force's mission. Appendix A lists the California County Task Forces for Self-esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility. Appendix B provides a resource inventory of programs having self-esteem components. It includes programs in California listed by county and programs outside of California. Appendix C describes programs, projects, and curricula in self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Appendix D lists relevant books, periodicals, dissertations, audiotapes, and videotapes. Self-esteem assessment instruments are described in appendix E. Appendices F, G, and H list agencies and organizations, publishers and distributors, and human resources, respectively. The final appendix includes California legislation on self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. (NB)

This document contains the final report of a California Task Force created to promote self-esteem and personal responsibility. It begins with an executive summary listing key principles of the task force and providing recommendations and discussions in each of six major areas upon which the report focuses. The next section presents the task force's vision and recommended action. Readers are guided into the 21st century as a time when Californians have integrated the principles of self-esteem and of personal and social responsibility into their personal lives and into their families, businesses, governments, and communities. The third section presents a definition of self-esteem and gives a commentary on the definition. Section 4 lists key principles for nurturing self-esteem and personal and social responsibility. Section 5 examines further action and needed research. Section 6 represents the substantive results of the task force's investigation into the relationship between self-esteem and the social concerns of: (1) family (parenting, child abuse, teenage pregnancy); (2) education (schools and academic failure); (3) substance use and abuse; (4) crime and violence; (5) poverty and chronic welfare dependency; and (6) the workplace. Each major area is organized in two parts: first, general findings, and then policy recommendations with supporting data and program examples. Section 7 gives brief personal statements from task force members and section 8 consists of a brief conclusion. (NB)

From Athens to America calls for the reversal of the withdrawal of the character-forming function from the political domain, arguing for public sector--federal, state, and local--involvement in character formation. Solomon focuses on four specific virtues to serve as a guide to public policy formation: self-esteem, joy and optimism, equanimity, and personal responsibility. He calls for the public sector to move beyond the efforts of families, faith communities, and civic organizations, and take a vital role in fostering character development and promoting these virtues. Combining political science with philosophy, the Judeo-Christian tradition, and medical research, this book illustrates how we formulate public policies that enable people to grow and develop into healthy humans, what each of us is fully capable of becoming.

The United States has always been profoundly conflicted about the role and utility of its government. Simmering just beneath the surface of heated public discussions over the appropriate scope and size of government are foundational questions about the very purpose of the state, and the basis of its authority. America's changing and diversifying cultural climate makes common agreement about the government's raison d'être all the more difficult. In The Therapeutic State, James Nolan shows us how these unresolved dilemmas have coalesced at century's end. Today the American state, faced with a steady decline in public confidence, has embraced a therapeutic code of moral understanding to legitimize its very existence. By ranging widely across education, criminal justice, welfare, political rhetoric, and civil law, Nolan convincingly illustrates how the state increasingly turns to the therapeutic ethos as a justification for its programs and policies, a development that will profoundly influence the relationship between government and citizenry. In a tone refreshingly free of polemic, Nolan charts the dialectic relationship between culture and politics and, against the backdrop of striking historical contrasts, gives example after example of the emergence of therapeutic sensibilities in the processes of the American state.

Why do ordinary people turn to psychology in the hopes of making themselves healthier, wealthier, and happier? Governed by Affect offers a multi-sited history of psychology and its role in American public life. Focusing on a series of transformations since the 1970s, the book examines the rise of psychology as a health science and the discipline's growing entanglements with public policy inspired new theories of inattentive and unconscious affect, which have come to structure health care, education, the economy, and how we understand ourselves.

“An intriguing odyssey” though the history of the self and the rise of narcissism (The New York Times). Self-absorption, perfectionism, personal branding—it wasn’t always like this, but it’s always been a part of us. Why is the urge to look at ourselves so powerful? Is there any way to break its spell—especially since it doesn’t necessarily make us better or happier people? Full of unexpected connections among history, psychology, economics, neuroscience, and more, Selfie is a “terrific” book that makes sense of who we have become (NPR’s On Point). Award-winning journalist Will Storr takes us from ancient Greece, through the Christian Middle Ages, to the self-esteem evangelists of 1980s California, the rise of the “selfie generation,” and the era of hyper-individualism in which we live now, telling the epic tale of the person we all know so intimately—because it’s us. “It’s easy to look at Instagram and selfie-sticks and shake our heads at millennial narcissism. But Will Storr takes a longer view. He ignores the easy targets and instead tells the amazing 2,500-year story of how we’ve come to think about our selves. A top-notch journalist, historian, essayist, and sleuth, Storr has written an essential book for understanding, and coping with, the 21st century.” —Nathan Hill, New York Times-bestselling author of The Nix “This fascinating psychological and social history . . . reveals how biology and culture conspire to keep us striving for perfection, and the devastating toll that can take.”—The Washington Post “Ably synthesizes centuries of attitudes and beliefs about selfhood, from Aristotle, John Calvin, and Freud to Sartre, Ayn Rand, and Steve Jobs.” —USA Today “Eminently suitable for readers of both Yuval Noah Harari and Daniel Kahneman, Selfie also has shades of Jon Ronson in its subversive humor and investigative spirit.” —Bookseller “Storr is an electrifying analyst of Internet culture.” —Financial Times “Continually delivers rich insights . . . captivating.” —Kirkus Reviews