Maybe acupuncture is the answer. A former Berkeleyite takes on a new lifestyle in Louisiana. It evidently has never been low.
Cultural conservatives grind their teeth at the mere mention of the topic.
And even among academics who study it, there is debate about how it should be defined and measured. The task force quickly became a laughingstock, triggering a backlash. They also argued that there was no clear link between it and achievement, since many high achievers think they stink. In a famous paper from 1996, Roy F. Baumeister, a psychologist at Case Western University, proposed that attempts to raise self-esteem might actually worsen social problems. Criminals, Klan members and Nazis, he archly noted, all most likely suffer not from too little self-esteem but from too much.