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Knowing Self as Something You Possess
Self-esteem can be understood as a claim to know self as something.
The prerequisite for knowing is owning. That is, in order to claim to know, you first must claim to possess. This limits self-esteem to areas in which you can have something.
Therefore, self-esteem issues can concern anything that a person claims they have. Typical areas of having, of possessing claims are: experience, abilities, property, knowledge, opinions of others, accomplishments, friends, money, power, fame, potential, likability, looks, education, titles, heritage, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, personality, humor, intelligence, etc.
Self-esteem claims you are what you possess, what you know.
Therefore, if what you have is bad, then you are bad. Conversely, if what you have is good, then you are good.
Hence, you become knowledge instead of a person, a being.
I am what I have. I know what I have. I can identify with what I know. I feel what I think I am.
1) I have something.
2) I know that thing.
3) I identify with that thing.
4) I am that thing.
5) I feel like that thing.
QUOTATIONS VARIOUS SOURCES
"You are an intricate mechanism, but comparison, judgment, identification prevent comprehension."--J. Krishnamurti, The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, Volume IV, page 2
"Self-esteem steals souls."--Kevin Everett FitzMaurice
Self-Esteem Disputes: 50 Short