Religion may also be a vehicle to pseudo-self-esteem. In past centuries, kings believed that their power and nobility was bestowed by divine right; hence they did not need to justify their rule or even to win the loyalty and affection of their subjects by any secular action. Today, many Christians imagine that they are vested with special power by religious grace and that their wrongful actions are exculpated by a merciful Christ or a priest in a confessional. Such flights of fancy offer a temporary, illusory sense of power and self-worth, but they exact a terrible cost to mental health and well-being.
Social metaphysicians, who view reality as a product of social opinion (p. 3.10:9), may seek pseudo-self-esteem through the eyes of others. By means of boasting, name-dropping, fishing for compliments, and other forms of approval-seeking, they seek to create a positive impression on others, as if the consciousness of others could render them worthy or powerful.
Some individuals seek to use power over others as a substitute for a sense of true efficacy. The power they attain is basically illusory, since their attempt to benefit from the minds of others ignores one of the principal preconditions for the well-functioning of such minds—namely, independence. The human mind, as we have seen (pp. 1.3:61-2), requires autonomy in order to produce knowledge (and hence values). Like the power obtained from ill-maintained machinery, power over others is by necessity temporary and limited. The principal avenue to such power, of course, is politics, and we shall see the full consequences of the quest for such power in Section 5. 
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