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What Is Self-Love? Redefinition of a Controversial Construct
Eva Henschke and Peter Sedlmeier
Department of Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology
Self-love is a controversial construct: Throughout history, views on self-love have been
polarized as “good”(associated with well-being and health) versus “bad”(associated
with narcissism and selfishness). Although predominately equated in academic litera-
ture, self-love and narcissism are in fact opposites. However, there is a lack of adequate
research, debate, and empirical work on the construct of self-love and its contributing
factors. We attempted to address the limitations of previous studies and aim to propose
a methodologically sound model of self-love. Arguing that psychotherapists benefit
from a broad and differentiated understanding of self-love, we administered 13 semi-
structured interviews with regular psychotherapists, psychotherapist authors of books or
journal articles on self-love, and psychotherapists/coaches with long experience in
group work on self-love. Interview questions focused on specifying self-love and its
components. An inductive thematic analysis yielded a preliminary model with three
main themes: (a) self-contact,defined as giving attention to oneself; (b) self-acceptance,
defined as being at peace with oneself; and (c) self-care,defined as being protective of
and caring for oneself. We first validated the findings with the same sample of experts
and then assessed our preliminary model’s consistency with the existing literature and
its comprehensiveness, before augmenting and modifying the model to arrive at a final
model of self-love. The relationships with other self-related constructs such as self-
compassion and self-esteem are further examined. Results shed new light on the con-
struct and provide a basis for further research examining the link between self-love,
psychological health, and well-being.
Keywords: self-love, self-contact, self-acceptance, self-care, narcissism
Peter Sedlmeier https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-6313
This research was made possible by a scholarship from the Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Foundation
of the German Economy). We further gratefully acknowledge the help provided by Professor Ruch from
University of Zurich in early stages of the study.
Transcripts and materials from the study are available from the corresponding author on request.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eva Henschke, Department of Psychology,
Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany. Email: eva.henschke@psychologie.tu
-chemnitz.de
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ISSN: 0887-3267 https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000266
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2023, Vol. 51, No. 3, 281–302
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This article was published Online First October 7, 2021.