Hollow Kids: Recapturing the Soul of a Generation Lost to the Self-Esteem Myth

Just one more teen bashing book, I thought as I started to read Hollow Kids. It didn't take long before I realized something much more profound was in the offing. Drs. Smith and Elliott convincingly demonstrate that our culture has bought some seriously misguided myths about self-esteem-specifically that more self-esteem is always better and that raising self-esteem will cure most anything that ails youth today. They further show that raising self-esteem has become a cultural mantra that has worked its way into school curriculums, psychology journals, and thousands of self-help books. The authors then provide a logical analysis backed up by hundreds of studies demonstrating that overly high, inflated self-esteem poses far more dangers than you would imagine. It appears that, although for decades everyone assumed low self-esteem caused aggression, eating disorders, and substance abuse, quite the opposite appears to be the case. You really have to read the book and review the authors' evidence. You'll never think about self-esteem in the same way again! Finally, I was delighted by their surprisingly useful solutions and advice for overcoming the problems they critique. Most such books fail miserably in the area of solutions; this one doesn't.

Hollow Kids opens with some very surprising statistics about self-esteem and how it has become infused in our culture and our collective psyches. The authors present these facts in a fast paced, hard hitting, yet entertaining way. I was amazed that with each new chapter, new information about a variety of topics was presented in the same interesting format. I would never have believed that overly high self-esteem could lead to problems such as violence, aggression, and even eating disorders. The authors' points are often rather counter-intuitive, but they back their assertions with compelling evidence and research in addition to their own clinical experiences. The chapters on education and parenting were fantastic. Hollow Kids goes further than most books critical of current cultural trends in that it provides surprisingly useful advice and solutions. Great book!