Self-esteem is of such fundamental importance to good mental health that even those with low self-esteem are dimly aware that they lack it and need it. Attempts to fake self-esteem or to find shortcuts to it give rise to many forms of pathological behavior. In lieu of authentic self-esteem, people may derive pseudo-self-esteem from "put-downs" of others or from the belief that superficial characteristics, irrelevant to one's achievements as a rational being, render one superior to people in other categories.

For instance, racism, the belief that ideas, values, or character are determined not by mind but by race (cf. p. 3.10:26), can support a false sense of self-esteem in several ways:

In its simplest form, racism may enable one to regard one's own race as "superior." Since power and worth are assumed to accrue automatically to all members of that race, the responsibility of earning self-esteem can be avoided.
Even if one is a "multiculturalist" (cf. p. 3.10:28), regarding all races as inherently equal, one may glory in one's racial "heritage," appropriating the accomplishments of previous individuals in one's race as "collective achievements," which belong to the race as a whole and confer a (false) self-esteem on all of its members. (Learning about one's cultural heritage can be a healthy antidote, however, for a few youngsters who feel obliged to conform to the cultural pressures of the majority.)

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