What do you think?
Does it do any good?
Does hating or disliking anything do any good?
I went with the Hitler thing, but actually hate is always not rational. However, to feel the emotion of hate isn’t an indication of an irrational person, so there’s a lot of ways to interpret the question. So assuming you understand that hate is an emotion, and using it as a justification to act is an irrational decision making process, then hating yourself without acting based on that hate is not irrational behavior. The part about hating yourself as opposed to hating something else doesn’t really make any difference.
Do you mean “hate yourself every minute of every day” or do you mean “have complex emotions regarding yourself that at times contain elements of shame, loathing, and despair, but also periods when your self-directed thoughts are neutral or even positive”?
All the bad thoughts about yourself outweigh the good and neutral ones.
I have always believed that the low self esteem that is found in some black children, men and women is completely and totally expected and rational, and if it WEREN’T there, it would be strange.
Self loathing and insecurities should be addressed and worked through if you are a black person in this society, otherwise, I would be concerned that the loathing was still there, but being avoided.
I can imagine situations in which such a thing wouldn’t be an issue - unusually self-aware psychopaths, who realize they are monsters perhaps ( one can think of fictional examples ). But for a non-monstrous person I don’t think self-loathing, which is perfectly fine on a small scale, should absolutely outweigh a healthy sense of self. Therein seems to lie the path to suicidal ideation. At that point some corrective measures are probably in order.
There is a world of difference between “hate” and “dislike.” If you dislike yourself, that’s a great motivation to change for the better, and perfectly rational. If you hate yourself, that’s a level of emotion that suggests a psychological problem and goes beyond the rational. There are some people, like Hitler, who might be justified in hating themselves, but even better is to hate what they’ve done and dislike themselves and begin making amends. If they hate themselves, there’s no motive to fix or repair.
I have suicidal ideation and self-loathing doesn’t always enter into it. In fact, I generally like myself; if I weren’t me, I’d want me for a friend. But I have mental illness that manifests itself in different ways, one of which is that thoughts of suicide are like my “drug of choice.” I’ve had mental prompts to off myself for no reason at all, out of the blue. It’s like the songs of the sirens, always there at the back of my mind, always inviting. But I do have periods of hating myself and it’s a struggle to climb out of the hole. Whether those times are rational or not I don’t know, but I think they’re overly prolonged.
I can’t believe that folks actually think like this.
No. Hating yourself, assuming you have any idea of who “you” are, will help you achieve nothing at all. There is nothing wrong with being dissatisfied with your actions and seeking to choose better actions in the future, but really you can only do that if you are accepting of how you are.
I don’t understand (completely) why everyone seems focused on actions.
We aren’t only actions. I agree that actions are what we have some modicum of control over and are thus responsible for. But a person can reasonably dislike something that is beyond their or anyone else’s control.
To me, acceptance doesn’t say anything about love or hate. I dislike doing house chores, for instance. But I accept that I still have to do them. So in the context of self-hate, a person can hate themselves. But they can accept that they have to live regardless of how they feel about themselves.
Hate is a such a strong emotion. I would think for self-hate to be rational, a person would need to have a personality that is so obnoxious and toxic that they can barely function in society without causing problems. I can also see how an addict whose life has completely been over taken by their addiction would be justified in hating themselves.
I don’t think low self-esteem and self-hate are synonymous. The former is an unfavorable assessment of one’s abilities, attractiveness, and/or value to others. The latter is an emotion. When you hate something, there’s usually no amount of reasoning that can make you stop hating. Doesn’t mean its a feeling without justification per se, but it’s not something that can be convinced away on an intellectual level. The change has to occur on an emotional, internal psychological level.
With self-esteem, I do think people can change their assessment of themselves if they are given the opportunity to succeed at things they assumed that couldn’t do. Their self-esteem may always be on the low side, but improvement is possible with encouragement and positive reinforcement by others.
I also think one test to see whether someone’s self-hate is rational is if this feeling matches up with what is reflected at them by other people.
Consider the self-destructive addict, for instance. By the time they hit rock bottom, they’ve usually managed to ruin every relationship they’ve had. They are often despied by people who once loved them, even though intellectually, their former loved-ones know a sickness is at work. People can’t stand to be around them because everything is about me, me, me. They suck up all the air in the room like vampires.
If this were my life, I’d have a good reason to hate myself. It’s sounds heartless to say that, but it’s true. When everyone in your life can no longer tolerate your presence, there’s is likely a rational reason for that.
But if I were feeling self-hatey but noticed most people didn’t act like they hated me–and in fact, many acted the opposite–then I would question whether my emotions were exaggerated or irrational.
Yeah, I do think like this. Based on my own experience. Growing up in the U.S. as a black girl, the images that were presented to me in the media were the opposite of everything that I am. I didn’t have long, flowing, cascading hair. I had kinky, tightly coiled hair that hugged close to my head. I didn’t have light skin, fair features, slender nose, baby blue eyes…as my body began to develop, it was very different than the bodies that were presented in Disney cartoons or Romantic movies or tv shows or magazines, or any of the images I was bombarded with. I had a big booty, like many black women I knew (in comparison to the rest of our bodies…or in comparison to many *white *booties.) and that was often mocked in the shows we watched. It was very common to hear white women on tv respond with horror at being told their booties were big.
My lips were big long before big lips came into fashion. If little black girls wanted to see their own features glorified and celebrated…well, it just wasn’t really happening on a consistent scale in this society. I don’t know how one would come out of that environment without some kind of self esteem issues that need to be addressed.
Luckily for me, the issues were addressed. My father was very good at seeing that I learned how to manage my ideas about self image. He had to make a special effort, and he knew it. The right literature and art and, really, I thank goodness for a lot of hip hop…eventually, I was able to overcome the feelings of conflict I had with my self image.
But if coming from this society, I had never had ANY issues with self image…I would have thought myself quite strange. It would be like being in some psychological experiment where the scientists purposely deprive the rats of needed stimuli, and then discover at the end of the experiment that the rats are perfectly happy without any stimuli at all.
I spent several years behaving toward women in such a way that I really should have had my ass kicked. I stopped because I had come to hate myself, and I hated myself because I was being hateful. My self-loathing was not irrational; it was a correct assessment of my behavior at the time.
I’m wondering what it means that I can’t even understand the question. How is possible to hate yourself? I’m plenty frustrated with myself. Words are so inadequate to the task even so as to describe their inadequacy. But I can’t begin to comprehend hating myself. 
I don’t hate myself, but I don’t particularly like myself. I don’t think I’d want to be friends with me if I were somebody else. I think I have good qualities, and I can see why other people like me, but frankly they only have to put up with me occasionally for a little while at a time; I have to put up with me all the time. Think about how hard it is to find the right person to marry. Only a tiny percentage of the population are people I would want to spend my whole life with. What are the odds I would be one of them?
I voted yes.
Because self loathing takes effort and energy. As such, it is a choice. As a choice it is beyond stupid and self absorbed, though it is both, as to actually being irrational.