Know the Truth About Yourself

The aim of self-image psychology is not to create a ficti­tious self which is all-powerful, arrogant, egoistic, all-important. Such an image is as inappropriate and unrealistic as the inferior image of self. Our aim is to find the "real self," and to bring our mental images of our­selves more in line with "the objects they represent." How­ever, it is common knowledge among psychologists that most of us under-rate ourselves; short change ourselves, and sell ourselves short. Actually, there is no such thing as a "superiority complex." People who seem to have one are actually suffering from feelings of inferiority—their "superior self" is a fiction, a cover-up, to hide from them­selves and others their deep-down feelings of inferiority and insecurity.
How can you know the truth about yourself? How can you make a true evaluation? It seems to me that here psychology must turn to religion. The Scriptures tell us that God created man "a little lower than the angels" and "gave him dominion"; that God created man in his own image. If we really believe in an all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving Creator, then we are in a position to draw some logical conclusions about that which He has created— Man. In the first place such an all-wise and all-powerful Creator would not turn out inferior products, any more than a master painter would paint inferior canvases. Such a Creator would not deliberately engineer his product to fail, any more than a manufacturer would deliberately build failure into an automobile. The Fundamentalists tell us that man's chief purpose and reason for living is to "glorify God," and the Humanists tell us that man's pri­mary purpose is to "express himself fully."