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Psychologist: Low self-esteem hinders recognition of personal rights
🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

Psychologist: Low self-esteem hinders recognition of personal rights

From La Nación · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Psychologist Walter Riso states that low self-esteem prevents individuals from recognizing their personal rights.
  • People with poor self-valuation tend to be submissive and dependent in relationships because they don't assert their fundamental rights.
  • Healthy self-esteem fosters dignity, enabling equal relationships and clear boundaries.

If you have low self-esteem, you will not recognize your personal rights, according to psychologist Walter Riso. The Italian expert explained that individuals with poor self-valuation often adopt submissive and dependent stances in their relationships. This occurs because they fail to acknowledge their own fundamental rights, making it easier for others to exert control or manipulation over their decisions.

If you have low self-esteem, you will not recognize your personal rights.

— Walter RisoExplaining the link between low self-esteem and the inability to assert personal rights.

Riso, a specialist in mental health, asserted that people with low self-esteem are not assertive. He defined assertiveness as the ability to express negative and positive feelings, particularly negative ones. This includes the capacity to say no, express disagreements, offer a contrary opinion, refuse an irrational request, and defend personal rights.

The people with low self-esteem are not assertive. Assertiveness is the ability to express negative and positive feelings, but above all negative feelings.

— Walter RisoDefining assertiveness and its connection to self-esteem.

"If you have low self-esteem, you will not recognize your personal rights," Riso stated. He elaborated that in any romantic relationship, someone with low self-esteem will adopt a submissive attitude. They will end up doing whatever the other person wants and allow themselves to be manipulated. Submitting to another person is always linked to self-esteem issues, he explained, because a person with good self-esteem is dignified and, being dignified, will always establish an equal relationship.

The capacity to say no, to express disagreements, to give a contrary opinion, to refuse an irrational request, to defend personal rights. Then, that is assertiveness. If you have low self-esteem, you will not recognize your personal rights.

— Walter RisoFurther elaborating on the components of assertiveness and its relation to self-worth.

Therefore, Riso emphasized that healthy self-esteem fosters dignity and allows individuals to set clear boundaries by expressing disagreements or refusing unfair requests. His argument insists that only through self-respect can equitable and balanced relationships be built.

In any romantic relationship, you will always put yourself in an attitude of submission. You will end up doing what the other person wants. You will let yourself be manipulated. Submitting to a person always has to do with self-esteem problems, because the person with good self-esteem is dignified and, being dignified, will always establish an equal relationship.

— Walter RisoDescribing the dynamics of relationships influenced by low self-esteem.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by La Nación in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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