Perceptions of Self-Love Among Orthodox Christians: Clinical and Pastoral Implications

Using an interdisciplinary, empirical perspective, the study explored Orthodox Christians’ perceptions of self-love and its relationship to love of neighbour, love of God and self-sacrifice. Three scales with good reliability were designed and used with 153 Orthodox Christian adults. The main results obtained are as follows: Orthodox Christians have positive perceptions of self-love – they do not see it as a passion or sin as it is described in Christian ascetic literature; they appreciate the importance and benefits of self-love when they perceive it as a separate reality from the love of neighbour and the love of God; some of them have negative or unclear perceptions on the relationship between self-love, love of neighbour and love of God. In this last respect the empirical results of the study contradict important philosophical and theological views. In the study, less than one-quarter of the Orthodox Christians scored high in practising healthy self-love and agreed that self-love can coexist with self-sacrifice in a certain dose or balance. The clinical and pastoral implications of the findings are discussed, and practical suggestions for intervention are proposed.