"There is something basically healthy about being confronted with an unflattering version of yourself and your worldview from time to time".

Very true....my thoughts on this: When I was growing up in the 50s there were still “remnants of a Christian moral sense that everyone (including oneself) is an imperfect being. In the following decades, that moral/philosophical centre ‘progressively’ unravelled. Key to this was the entry into the Western collective psyche of a supposed deficit of self-love … one that needed correcting via maximal self-esteem. In the post-60s decades, self-esteem’s supposed importance to healthy personal development became axiomatic right across the spectrum from Left to Right. But it had a downside. Once you are encouraged to view yourself as axiomatically personally blameless, the next step is to look for someone (or something) else to blame for your discontents." grahamcunningham.substa…