Joan Didion On Self Respect Analysis

The short essay “On Self-Respect” written by Joan Didion is dedicated to the discussion of the question of human self-respect as a psychological phenomenon. The author aimed to answer the following questions: what does the self-respect actually mean, what contribution does it make to human life and habits, and what should be done to develop and maintain the feeling of self-respect. According to Didion (1961), the concept of self-respect is not something that can be dedicated to a person in attitude to him/herself or other people. Self-respect is the feeling that is deeply connected with the development of the human character. One of the main conclusions made by Didion is that only person with a character or the will to accept and bear responsibility for his/her own life is worthy of self-respect feelings. In this way, self-respect is something that can also support human psychologically at the time of big life problems and tests.
Didion’s ideas appear to be persuasive and important for understanding since the examples of the most significant people of different ages demonstrate the presence of similar psychological …show more content…
Here, the person that wishes to reach self-respect cannot use the method of deception to fulfill this task. Even if the person manages to deceive the majority of the surrounding people, the problem of personal imperfection will remain relevant for him/herself. In this way, the state of self-respect will not be achieved, since the person will understand that the image that was reached by deception is not real, but something that is not connected to real life and cannot contribute to personal feelings of a human. The desire to put the imaginable achievements in the place of real accomplishments had never caused positive self-attitude among people, and the truth is always