Search "selfism" and you'll find us. You'll also find a 1984 psychology paper called "The measurement of selfism," a 1970s book that called modern psychology a "cult of self-worship," and a few sermons warning that selfism is ruining the culture. Every one of those older meanings describes the same thing: selfishness. Selfism, as we teach it, is the way out of selfishness, and out of selflessness too. Here's how to tell them apart.
The dictionary meaning
Dictionaries list selfism as an uncommon word for concentrating on your own interests, a cousin of selfishness and self-absorption. It never caught on in everyday speech, which is part of why it kept getting borrowed. Whenever someone needed a label for "too much self," it was sitting there unused.
The Selfism Scale (Phares and Erskine, 1984)
The academic use most people run into is a paper by E. Jerry Phares and N. Erskine, "The measurement of selfism," published in Educational and Psychological Measurement in 1984. They treated selfism as a form of narcissism and built a 28-item questionnaire to measure it, working within Julian Rotter's social learning theory.
They framed it as a belief: a general expectation that looking out for yourself first, whatever it costs anyone else, is just how the world works. One item reads "Thinking of yourself first is no sin in this world today." A high score means you see the grabbing approach as plain realism.
If you came here from a textbook or a reference list, that's the selfism it means. In our language it measures the selfish mindset, what the book calls petty selfishness: the child who takes the last slice, cuts the queue, and assumes everyone else would do the same. Selfism treats that as a losing strategy, because people who live that way end up isolated and distrusted.
Selfism as a critique of self-worship
In 1977 the psychologist Paul Vitz published Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship. He used "selfism" as his label for the humanistic psychology of the time, associated with Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and Erich Fromm, and for the self-help culture growing out of it. His worry was that it had become a secular religion with the self at the centre, eroding families and commitments.
The journalist Dick Meyer picked the word up in his 2008 book Why We Hate Us, using it for American individualism remade by marketing, self-help and moral relativism. In 2015 the preacher Neal Pollard drew on Meyer's book in a short post, "What Is 'Selfism'?", pointing at online cruelty and the habit of climbing up by pushing others down, and calling it the opposite of humility.
What these critics are describing is someone who rises by stepping on people. Selfism rejects that too. A person who needs to push others down to feel big is empty, not strong. The book is direct about this: a narcissist destroys others to feel big, while a Selfist builds themselves so big that destruction is unnecessary.
What Selfism means
Selfism, with a capital S, is the art of being Selfist. It starts from a simple claim: you can't pour from an empty cup. So you fill your own first, on purpose and without apology, with your health, your money, your skills, your peace and your boundaries. Then what you give to others comes from the overflow, by choice, and it's worth more because it's real.
That puts Selfism against two failures, not one.
- Selfish: taking without weighing the cost to anyone else. This is what the 1984 scale measures and what the critics attack. Selfism doesn't celebrate it.
- Selfless: giving until you're empty, then resenting it. This is what most of us were taught to aim for. Selfism doesn't celebrate that either.
- Selfist: full, self-respecting, generous by choice. This is the goal.
The book's picture for the difference is a lighthouse. One man rows out into every storm to save drowning sailors, and eventually drowns with them. Another builds a tall, solid tower on the cliff and keeps the lamp burning, and hundreds of ships never hit the rocks at all. He looked after his own position first, and that's exactly why he helped so many. That's Selfism.
So which "selfism" are you reading about?
A quick guide. If the source is a psychology paper from the 1980s or 1990s, it means the Phares and Erskine scale, a measure of selfish attitudes. If it's a church, a culture essay or a book about modern life, it probably means self-worship or individualism gone sour. If it's this site, the book, or the Selfism app, it means the practice of becoming Selfist: putting yourself first so you can stop taking and stop martyring, and start overflowing.
Where do you stand right now: selfish, selfless, or Selfist? The Selfist Score takes about five minutes. Free. No card.
Take the Selfist Score →New here? Start with what is Selfism, or go straight to the book, Selfism: The Art of Being Selfist.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Selfism Scale?
The Selfism Scale is a 28-item questionnaire published by E. Jerry Phares and N. Erskine in 1984 in Educational and Psychological Measurement, in a paper titled 'The measurement of selfism.' It treats selfism as a form of narcissism: a belief that looking out for yourself first, whatever the cost to others, is simply how the world works.
What does selfism mean in psychology?
In research, selfism usually refers to the Phares and Erskine construct, a selfish outlook measured by agreement with statements like 'Thinking of yourself first is no sin in this world today.' Paul Vitz also used the word in 1977 as a critical label for humanistic psychology and self-help culture.
What is selfism in Christianity?
Christian writers have used selfism for self-worship or individualism that replaces humility and service. Paul Vitz's Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship (1977) is the best-known example, and Neal Pollard's 2015 post 'What Is Selfism?' draws on Dick Meyer's 2008 book Why We Hate Us.
Is Selfism the same as selfishness?
No. Selfism, as Selfism.Community teaches it, is the art of being Selfist: filling your own cup first so you never need to take from others, and giving from the overflow by choice. It rejects selfishness and selflessness alike. The older meanings of the word describe selfishness.
What is a Selfist?
A Selfist is a person who practises Selfism. They put their own well-being first on purpose, hold their boundaries, and are generous by choice rather than from guilt or fear. A Selfist is full, so they have no need to grab from anyone and no urge to give themselves away.