The Significance of High Value in Human Behaviour : Speech of the Suffering Soul

The Significance of High Value in Human Behaviour is an innovative conceptualisation of how the quest for a high self-worth works as a psychosocial dynamic, presenting the idea that feelings of impotence and low self-esteem induce a powerful impetus on negative human action. This book gives an account of what it means to base a whole psychological perspective on high value, which has been an understudied aspect of human action. Employing an ethnographical approach, the book uses client observations and social research to promote original solutions in an empathetic and engaging manner for psychological support services aiding isolated individuals. It considers the concept of a valuable self and examines the negative effects within the personality which can be generated when this drive for a valuable self is blocked through human devaluation or violence.The Significance of High Value in Human Behaviour will appeal to academics and post-graduate students in the fields of psychology and psychotherapy, psychotherapists with specialist interests in loneliness and self-worth, and sociologists concerned with the psychology of the self. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Setting the scene – the psychopathology of everyday life 8 PART 1 Arenas of anxiety 16 1 Companion 18 2 Comparison: “go compare”: social media and social toxins 30 3 Competition: tales of humiliation 43 4 Compensation: violence, transfer and scapegoats 64 PART 2 Notes on a theory of value 86 5 A discourse on method and the dog that didn’t bark 88 6 Re-setting the personality drivers 106 7 Markers of devaluation: difference and indifference 119 8 Dignity, indignity and the anger of a valuable self 133 9 The relational turn: self-esteem and self-actualisation 141 10 Like a sailboat in the harbour: collision and collusion 154 11 Through the life course 168 PART 3 A positive psychology 188 12 Transformative change and positive places 190 Postscript: what is it that Protests? 202 Index 206