Self Hatred

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Is self hatred a sin? Or is it laudable as it may lead to repentance?:confused:
 
The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. If you do not love yourself how can you love your neighbor. Self deprecation is not what God is asking of us. It is not being humble not to love ourselves as long as it is in a healthy way.
 
I would bring it up in Confession. Even if it is not reprehensible (as self-hatred isn’t necessarily committed with full consent), the priest will be able to provide comforting and helpful advice. Use the gift of Confession fully! The Ignatian Examination of Conscience challenges us to consider how well we live the theological virtues. Despair, the corresponding vice of [the theological virtue] hope, is not what God wants for us!

God Bless You
Pax
 
Good replies, but confession is not an option for me as I am in RCIA.
 
*Self-hatred *can have two very opposite meanings.

St. Catherine of Siena and other saints know that self-hatred (hatred of one’s vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, pettiness and selfishness in general) is a good thing (meritorious). I see this and agree.

Self-hatred can also be meant to be something quite the opposite: actually hating your very self by not taking care of your very soul and body, which is the opposite - and a very detrimental thing (and sinful.)

The first kind is motivated by true love for God and self in the proper way. The second is quite the opposite.
 
Hatred of anyone is a bad thing – even if it’s yourself. You are a child of God, and we are called to love ALL of His children.
 
ready said:
*Self-hatred *can have two very opposite meanings.

St. Catherine of Siena and other saints know that self-hatred (hatred of one’s vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, pettiness and selfishness in general) is a good thing (meritorious). I see this and agree.

Self-hatred can also be meant to be something quite the opposite: actually hating your very self by not taking care of your very soul and body, which is the opposite - and a very detrimental thing (and sinful.)

The first kind is motivated by true love for God and self in the proper way. The second is quite the opposite.
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👍 hate the sin not the sinner…also applies to oneself. something which has taken me,a long enough time to learn.Actually this is something i learned (applying hate the sin not the sinner to myself) from a dear friend who does not live a christian faith,(long story)
 
fbl9 said:
👍 hate the sin not the sinner…also applies to oneself. something which has taken me,a long enough time to learn.Actually this is something i learned (applying hate the sin not the sinner to myself) from a dear friend who does not live a christian faith,(long story)
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Praised be the Lord! Good for you!🙂
 
I’m not saying this applies to the original poster, but wanted to throw this out on the topic of self hatred. If one has a mental illness, such as depression, couldn’t that be the cause of self hate? If that were the case, having an illness (or side effects of an illness) couldn’t be a sin, right?

Nevertheless, I agree discussing this with a priest would be beneficial.
 
regression said:
I’m not saying this applies to the original poster, but wanted to throw this out on the topic of self hatred. If one has a mental illness, such as depression, couldn’t that be the cause of self hate? If that were the case, having an illness (or side effects of an illness) couldn’t be a sin, right?

Nevertheless, I agree discussing this with a priest would be beneficial.
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Illness itself is not sin - mental illness can even diminish your culpability of sin, as the Catholic Catechism points out.

I suppose you could hate your illness, like many people so…and you can even “hate” the way you behave with your illness and experience disgust of self, without really hating yourself in the spiritual sense of the word. If you are digusted with yourself, I don’t think it necessarily has to involve hatred for who you know you truly are at the core: a child of God and good. If you don’t think you are good because of illness work on the virtues and work on loving yourself by seeing who you really are and are meant to be.
 
alabaster said:
Is self hatred a sin? Or is it laudable as it may lead to repentance?:confused:
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Hatred is never good. God loves you and God never wants us to hate something He loves. Don’t get humility and hatred mixed up. If you are humble and know that God is great and you acknowledge our need for Him in order to avoid sin and repent, that is not hating oneself, but hating the sins one commits. That is humility.

If you hate yourself to the point of wanting to do harm to yourself, I believe that is sinful, unless you’re mentally ill, of course, and are, therefore, not responsible for your thoughts/actions.
 
alabaster said:
Is self hatred a sin? Or is it laudable as it may lead to repentance?:confused:
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I don’t know if it is a sin, but…

experts say it is impossible to love others if you do not love yourself. We are called to love others as ourselves… but if we hardly love ourselves, it means very little.

People like us who get down on ourselves a lot need to practice trying to love ourselves. I doubt that its a matter for confession, but it means that one way of serving God for you might be to practice being more charitable towards yourself. This will allow you to become more charitable towards others.

As an example, people who are self-critical might think something like “you stupid idiot, how could you do something so stupid.” But that same person, being a Christian, would never even think of saying that to someone else. So their practice of being charitable might start with being more easy on themselves, and kind to themselves. treat yourself how you would treat someone else.

Another problem with this, is that often we get angry with other people, when really the cause is feeling bad about ourselves. People project their own negative feelings towards themselves onto others. This is just part of psychology, not an act of the will. So it’s another good reason to force yourself to say nicer things to yourself internally. Think of it as something you are doing for God. Do it out of obedience because God loves you and he doesn’t want peopel to hate you, including yourself.
 
There’re two natures in us-one that loves the things of the spirit-the things of God, and one that prefers the things of the “flesh”: or this world. As posters have said, when we hate the things in us that are of this world: envy, pettiness, jealousy, pride etc, then we are loving God more. When we hate ourselves for not measuring up to standards the world sets for us, then we’re actually guilty of the sin of pride, even though it’s not apparent at first glance. The former is a healthy kind of hatred while the latter leads to death.
 
ready said:
*Self-hatred *can have two very opposite meanings.

St. Catherine of Siena and other saints know that self-hatred (hatred of one’s vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, pettiness and selfishness in general) is a good thing (meritorious). I see this and agree.

Self-hatred can also be meant to be something quite the opposite: actually hating your very self by not taking care of your very soul and body, which is the opposite - and a very detrimental thing (and sinful.)

The first kind is motivated by true love for God and self in the proper way. The second is quite the opposite.
Click to expand...
I think I was wrong in referring to hatred of one’s vanity, conceit, arrogance, pride, pettiness, and selfishness in general as actually being self-hatred. Forgive me, please, I wasn’t thinking. Those negative qualities of selfishness are referred to a forms of self-love by the saints…not a healthy form of loving self but a selfish one.

We should love ourselves always and only hate evil that might exist in ourselves…like the saints. Sorry about the confusion I brought.
 
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