Concept in Definition ABC
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, on Jan. 2010
Interest and exacerbated love that a person has for himself
The word selfishness supposes the exaggerated love for others that a person feels for himself and that then, for this reason, makes him pay excessive attention to his self-interest, being almost completely unconcerned and disinterested in others, even those closest to him, such is the case of friends, family, among others.
Disinterest in others
The selfish person, as the person who suffers this type of conduct or behavior, it is not interested at all in what happens to its neighbor but is driven by his absolute convenience and is dominated by individuality, that is, it does not have a conscience collective, much less altruistic, he will never think about others, what they need, what would do them good, but those thoughts are solely placed on his person, that is, what he needs, what is good for her, among others issues.
Now, we must say that although selfishness is manifested in a severe degree, it is never positive or good for anyone, for the selfish and for the selfish. those who suffer from it, in some circumstances and aspects it is inevitable to be selfish, since at certain times we must make choices, and therefore of course
think especially in our own well-being rather than the one next to us.Anyway, that good egoism, as we could call it, has to have a limitation, which is when it is not exacerbated or harms others.
Categories of selfishness
The concept of egoism comes in some way from that of ego, which according to the Psychology, turns out to be the psychological instance in which the individual becomes aware of his ego and his identity own.
In life we may encounter three categories of selfishness, the psychological (man's behavior is driven by self-interested motivations), the ethical (people help with the aim of obtaining some type of benefit for it, that is, assistance or help is understood as a means to take advantage of the situation) and the rational (the search for self-interest is the result of the use of reason).
Altruism, the other side
Meanwhile, we can mention the altruism as the main opponent of selfishness, because an altruistic person, as opposed to the selfish one, will be concerned firstly for his neighbor, for giving well-being to those around him, even sacrificing, if necessary, even his own wellness. If in a situation of need in which there is a group consisting of four people, for x reason, the possibility of accessing some food is presented, and then there is one who quickly takes his side, but there is another who gives it up in favor of others it will be easy to conclude that the first is selfish and the second is a person altruistic.
Negative incline to handle
From the above it is clear and it is easy to conclude that selfishness is not a positive inclination of the personality but rather the opposite, it turns out to be a negative and certainly annoying trait, this is how most of society reads it and then, the selfish, can end up suffering a great discrimination and social punishment when this tendency is recognized in him.
In some cases it is difficult to modify selfishness and more when it has persisted for a long time, however, in those situations that parents can Early identification of this condition in their children can contribute to its disappearance or minimization by instilling in the child the importance of sharing, of the solidarity, among other positive issues and opposed to selfishness.
Fundamentally a training in regards to developing the ability to share with peers, and much more when not there is an opportunity of this, because for example the child is an only child, it is a great alternative when it comes to curbing the selfishness of kids.