In his article, "Lacking in Self-Esteem? Good for You!," Andrew Sullivan writes that self-esteem isn't all that its cracked up to be. Drawing on the research performed by Brad Bushman of Iowa State University and Roy Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University, Sullivan writes:

Self-esteem can also be an educational boomerang. Friends of mine who teach today's college students are constantly complaining about the high self-esteem of their students. When the kids have been told from Day One that they can do no wrong, when every grade in high school is assessed so as to make the kid feel good rather than to give an accurate measure of his work, the student can develop self-worth dangerously unrelated to the objective truth. He can then get deeply offended when he's told he is getting a C grade in college and become demoralized or extremely angry. Weak professors give in to the pressure-hence, grade inflation. Tough professors merely get exhausted trying to bring their students into vague touch with reality.

Have you experienced people who think they are God's gift and who are offended if other people don't treat them that way?

Source: A. Sullivan, "Lacking in Self-Esteem? Good for You!" Time, Oct. 14, 2002, p. 102.

1		Can you see how inflated egos can be substituted for a proper sense of self? That is, how the distortion can become the reality?
2		What are some ways to enhance the realistic and natural development of self-esteem?