Good Enough

“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” This was the mantra of Stuart Smalley, the sappy, self-help-obsessed character Al Franken created for Saturday Night Live. Smalley always seemed to be grappling with a profound lack of self-esteem, and no doubt he’s not alone. But new research suggests that, perhaps more importantly, Smalley and countless others like him really suffer from a self-compassion problem. Self-compassion is a new psychological construct, developed...