I think you need honesty to self-actualize. Sometimes self-esteem is honest -- when it's earned, not given. Pretty significant difference and you see that playing out in k-12 all across America. Luce, you know, the book is kind of sad ... he lists America's problems. I'm about a third of the way through, he's still talking about education. He interviews charter schools, Bill Gates, Obama staffers, idea guys, everything in between -- and then the chapter ends with him talking to the president of Stanford, who says that the problem would solve itself in 25 years if parents would just read to their children from the ages of 0-6. He's right, and everyone else is just talking...Don't you think you need some self-esteem to even be able to go for self-actualization.
What about the idea that slightly depressed people actually see the world most accurately? This was found in a study and probably written up by tons of crap journals, let me see if I can find it...oh here's wikipedia Guess it's controversial. But anyway, if optimistic/"well adjusted" people are more likely to believe that the world favors them, that things happen to favor them, etc - more likely to attribute chance events to fate or having "deserved" them - what does that mean for the idea that you need honesty for self-actualization? Is true self-honesty possible?