I wrote an article about humility
Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2025 5:06 am
https://www.henry-ym.org/index.php/What_humility_is_not
When I first wrote it I was thinking on how humility can be confused with poverty. More than half a year have passed since then and now I came to realize that humility can be confused with self-humiliation. This strongly relates to narcissistic personality, but it's not exclusive to it. If we think about it, humility is often portrayed as poor characters in cinema and TV. Extend the idea of poverty to the mental health realm and we see self-loathing, self-pity and self-contempt. Some people may think that to be humble is to have no value or a bare minimum at best. As if only people who are powerful or wealthy would be arrogant or full of themselves.
False modesty can also be confused with humility. Because people may think that to be humble means to never be the first, never be rich, never be proud of anything or never present himself or herself as highly qualified or a person with high achievements. That's a misconception of what it means to be good. To deny oneself or to reject your own achievements, own qualities, own positive aspects is not a sign of humility. Those are signs pointing at insecurities, fears and shame.
When I first wrote it I was thinking on how humility can be confused with poverty. More than half a year have passed since then and now I came to realize that humility can be confused with self-humiliation. This strongly relates to narcissistic personality, but it's not exclusive to it. If we think about it, humility is often portrayed as poor characters in cinema and TV. Extend the idea of poverty to the mental health realm and we see self-loathing, self-pity and self-contempt. Some people may think that to be humble is to have no value or a bare minimum at best. As if only people who are powerful or wealthy would be arrogant or full of themselves.
False modesty can also be confused with humility. Because people may think that to be humble means to never be the first, never be rich, never be proud of anything or never present himself or herself as highly qualified or a person with high achievements. That's a misconception of what it means to be good. To deny oneself or to reject your own achievements, own qualities, own positive aspects is not a sign of humility. Those are signs pointing at insecurities, fears and shame.