A person is an emotional person who has developed his own rules of life. He has a huge energy reserve, through his feelings he expresses his own attitude towards others and the world, but what energy this person’s thoughts are endowed with, and what kind of emotions he shows when communicating with other people, depends solely on him and his desires. Let’s try to find out further what pride is and why it is a sin for people.

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Pride - what is it?

Pride - a feeling of complete superiority own personality over others. It is an inadequate assessment of personal importance. The manifestation of pride very often leads to stupid mistakes, because of which others suffer. This sin manifests itself in arrogance, not showing respect for other people, their lives and experiences. People with a heightened sense of pride have an increased desire to brag about their achievements. They consider their success only to be their merit, not taking into account the help of others and higher powers in ordinary life situations, and do not recognize the help and support of others.

In Latin, “pride” is translated as “superbia.” It is a sin because every quality of a person is laid down by the Creator. And considering yourself the source of all your achievements in life and that everything around you is the result of personal labor is fundamentally wrong. Criticism of the actions and speech of other people, accusations of incompetence, rude ridicule - greatly amuses people with pride and brings them untold pleasure.

Very often a person does not even realize that he is submitting to pride and thinks this is some other quality of his character . But then it gets worse– as a result, a person is completely immersed in this sin. How can you discern it in yourself and other people in order to stop in time and protect yourself from sin? To do this, you need to familiarize yourself with and learn to distinguish the following signs of sin:

It is these signs that are often confused with pride itself., sometimes accept these signs as virtues, but only when they take first place in a person’s character and begin to guide him. After this, the person is unable to control himself, and this inevitably leads to harm to himself and the people around him.

There are different types of this sin. This may be an age-related type of pride. When adults treat little ones with disdain, because they are still very stupid and naive due to their age. Or, on the contrary, young people believe that older people do not understand anything about modern trends and their views on life are outdated.

There is pride of knowledge. When a person considers himself the smartest, and everyone around him is a fool.

Pride of beauty. This sin mainly affects women who consider themselves the most beautiful, and other women unworthy of compliments and love.

National pride. People believe that their nation is superior to others, and some nations do not even have the right to exist. An example of this sin can be considered the views of the Germans towards the Jewish nation during the Second World War? Why is this not an indicator of the full manifestation of pride and not the result of the complete mastery of sin by some Germans.

There are a sufficient number of types of pride, each type manifests itself in one or another area of ​​human life and activity.

The results of this sin

Pride mainly acts as a source of bad thoughts and emotions, which negatively affect the state and behavior of people, in other words, prevent them from living a “correct” life, since an inflated sense of the importance of one’s “I” becomes the starting point of aggression towards other people. Other ideas about the world give rise to inside there is a flash of the following emotions: anger, resentment, hatred, contempt, envy and pity. They primarily lead to the absolute destruction of a person’s mental health, and, accordingly, his consciousness.

Pride and psychology

This sin often becomes a sign of incorrect upbringing. At an early age, parents often tell their child that he is better than others. However, the baby should receive praise and support, but only for a specific, real reason. False praise will create inflated self-esteem, which will invariably lead to pride. Such children, when they grow up, will not be able to realistically evaluate their own shortcomings. An example of this is that they do not know from childhood about criticism directed at them, and they will not be able to perceive it as adults.

As a rule, such sin brings discord in communication- after all, maintaining a friendly relationship with a proud person is a dubious pleasure. No one wants to feel humiliated from the very beginning, listen to long monologues about someone’s perfection and rightness, the lack of steps towards compromise will not lead to anything good. A proud person never recognizes the talents and abilities of another.

Pride in Orthodoxy

This is the main sin in Orthodoxy, since it is precisely this that is the source of other human vices: greed, anger. The salvation of a person's soul is based on the concept- The Lord is above all. Then you need to love your neighbor, sacrificing your interests and desires. But pride does not accept debt to another person; it does not have a feeling of pity. A virtue that eradicates pride and humility.

Current society imposes the opinion that a woman can easily do without a male representative. Pride in women does not recognize a family in which the man is in charge and his opinion is the main one. Women in such relationships do not recognize that their husband is right, constantly show their independence as proof, and try to subjugate the man to themselves. For such women, it is important to be a leader and a winner without deviating from your principles. It is not possible for such a woman to make sacrifices for her own family. Modern society paints similar pictures for us..

Total control, the habit of “dripping on the brain” and female irritability poison family life. Every quarrel ends only after the man admits his own wrong and the woman’s ego wins. A man's compulsion to praise a woman over every little thing lowers his self-esteem, which is why love dies. And the man wants to break off all relationships.

Get rid of this sin

When a person realizes what sin he carries within himself, and there is a desire to get rid of it, then the question immediately arises: how to get rid of it? This is not to say that this is very easy to do. After all, in order to get rid of a bad quality of character, you need to go through a long and difficult path, understand the sources of sin, and most importantly, make every effort to get rid of it, since the struggle will be with yourself.

Liberation from this sin - the path to knowledge of oneself and God, each subsequent step must be deliberate and confident. To do this you need to remember these rules:

1. love the world around you as it is;
2. learn to perceive any situation that occurs in life without offense and indignation, each time to show gratitude to God for what he has sent, because all circumstances are something new and useful;
3. be able to see the positive sides in any situation, although they are not always noticeable at first glance, since awareness often comes after some time.

We fight pride

There are such situations when a person himself can no longer do anything with himself to overcome pride. In such a situation, you should ask for help from your “senior comrades”, listen to their wise instructions and be able not to refuse them. This will help you take the true path, the path of resistance, and will also give you the opportunity to step further on the path of self-knowledge.

The most effective method in the fight against sin is service to family, society, the world and God. By giving oneself to others, a person changes because the environment becomes different - cleaner, brighter and more righteous. It’s not for nothing that the sages say: “Change yourself, everything around you will change.”

Pride is a complex psychological phenomenon that has no clear definition. It was and is treated differently in different cultures and religions. The phenomenon of pride manifests itself in several areas of human life. And in each field of knowledge it is defined differently.

Why do people who are overcome by pride walk with their heads held high, but are often unhappy? How to get rid of pride?

Pride and arrogance

Pride is a sin that in Orthodoxy is defined as mortal. This is a vice that leads to death. Pride is the opposite of the main Christian virtue - humility. A person who exalts himself above other people and God will face a fall from grace, a fall from the heights of excessive self-confidence.

The canons of morality cultivated in Orthodoxy are those moral norms that are customarily observed in a civilized society. Even an unbaptized person knows that he needs to be kind, sympathetic, attentive and caring towards the people around him - to love his neighbor. Religion reveres humility, self-sacrifice, and altruism. These qualities characterize a person as a spiritual person.

Pride and arrogance are used in common parlance as synonymous words and are recognized by people as identical phenomena. There is a thin line between pride and pride, but even these phenomena are not equivalent.

Pride manifests itself as arrogance, arrogance,... Pride is expressed as a feeling of satisfaction, an objective positive assessment of one's actions or abilities, healthy self-esteem, values ​​and honor.

Overconfidence can be overconfidence or justified. For the psychological well-being of an individual, sufficient faith in strength and capabilities is necessary.

A person is proud of himself for some reason (achieving a goal, receiving a reward, etc.), pride is causeless. It is based on inflated or underestimated self-esteem.

A proud person does not adequately perceive his “I”, others and the world around him. He considers himself better than those around him and behaves arrogantly without even noticing it. His “I”, feelings and thoughts are more important than the rest. They say about such a person that he is the “navel of the Earth.”

When an individual is successful and at the peak of well-being, he is at risk. Pride overtakes the rich, famous, and those who have official or informal power over others. Highly respected and high-status individuals often become arrogant, enjoying power and opportunity, imagining themselves as omnipotent. This attitude towards oneself becomes an obstacle to establishing trusting interpersonal relationships; those around them flatter, secretly hating or openly harming the arrogant proud person.

People who live in poverty or poverty, a series of bad luck, endless suffering and revel in misfortune are also viciously proud. Pride prevents them from becoming happy. Unhappy, proud people choose the path of suffering and brag about it to others; they love to be praised for their patience and torment. But it is easier to suffer without trying to change something, but expecting that everything will work out on its own, than to begin to act boldly on yourself.

Signs and consequences of pride

There are people who treat pride as a virtue, feed it and boast of arrogance, arrogance, and cynicism. Each person is a unique person, but the uniqueness of one’s own “I” is not a basis for arrogance.

Pride is a sin that leads to spiritual devastation. Due to the illusion of grandeur, the individual loses interest in the world around him; nothing interests and cares as much as his own “I”.

Pride is a kind of personal defense mechanism. This is the desire to hide imperfection and limited capabilities from everyone and oneself.

Signs of pride:

thoughts about one’s own greatness, uniqueness, superiority, infallibility,
, in order to prove superiority,
ignoring one's own shortcomings and focusing on the shortcomings of others,
frequent need for praise, compliments, admiration,
unacceptability of any kind of criticism,
reluctance,
reluctance to admit mistakes, frequent excuses for oneself,
intolerance and disrespect for others,
derogatory attitude towards people who are weaker or less successful,
irritability, hatred of happy people,
unacceptability of imperfection, perfectionism,
and forgive
private unfounded reproaches and accusations towards others,
transferring responsibility for personal problems to circumstances,
division of people based on status,
loss of valuables and
stubbornness,
boasting,
ingratitude,
pathos,
the desire to please everyone and the like.

Signs of pride are revealed by the person who is able to control the negative manifestations of his personality. Pride must be overcome before it takes over the individual.

Pride underlies psychological and mental problems, and also leads to the formation of negative qualities and personality traits, such as:

bitterness, hard-heartedness,
complex,
touchiness, excessive vulnerability,
envy,
personality degradation.

By getting rid of pride as a source of life's problems, you can achieve harmony and psychological well-being.

How to overcome pride

If a person wonders how to get rid of pride, it means that he is able to cope with it. The first step in the fight against vice is to admit that you have it.

Second step: identify manifestations of pride. Observe yourself for one week (this time is enough to identify problems) and write down on a piece of paper one manifestation of pride after another. Analyze frequent and habitual signs of pride.

Third step: determine areas of work on yourself and act.

For example, a person’s pride manifests itself in exalting oneself as an unsurpassed specialist whose work is impeccable. In this case, in order to come down to earth, it is enough to replace a colleague for one day in order to understand and appreciate the significance of the work of another employee. Even unprestigious work is worthy of respect and important.

Learn humility. Man is capable of much, but not omnipotent. Not everything depends on effort and effort. There are things that need to be accepted with humility. You cannot stop the flow of time, relive the past and know with one hundred percent probability what lies ahead.
Accept other people and life without judgment. You should not neglect someone because he is subjectively worse. Evaluation is relative. Considering yourself better than others because of your extraordinary intelligence, beauty or amount of money is unreasonable. These values ​​are not eternal, and for some they are not even good.
Be grateful. Say words of gratitude not as stock phrases (and some people don’t even know how to say “thank you”), but do it sincerely. If a person did something while fulfilling a duty, you should thank him for it, because he is not a machine, but a person. If a person tries, it should be noticed and expressed gratitude. Proud people do not know how to thank, because they believe that they are owed. People of lower status are perceived by them as servants, personal service personnel.

Respect the people around you. Respect is shown when a person is interested in others, shows attention and care. Respect presupposes empathy, the desire to understand the interlocutor and take into account interests.
See development potential. A person who imagines himself omnipotent believes that he has achieved everything and there is nothing left to strive for. This is impossible, there is always something to learn and something to strive for. The world does not stand still; the individual has enormous development potential.
Listen. An arrogant person does not accept criticism, and if he is also a powerful person, those around him are afraid to point out his shortcomings. Honest and objective criticism sobers up a proud person and becomes a necessary “shock therapy” for him.
Help people. Share knowledge, experience, wealth. By developing generosity, a person grows above himself. replace a selfish, “greedy” view of the world with a kind and cordial attitude towards others.
Be in love. A person overwhelmed by pride wants to be loved by everyone without exception. Such a subject expects praise, worship and servile service. But he doesn’t love himself or loves with a painful, abnormal love. Pride is a manifestation of dislike for others and for oneself.

Love for another person can cure the soul of vice. Pride is replaced by a desire to act for the benefit of the loved one, even to the detriment of oneself. A loving person feels the need to care, make concessions, forgive and agree, be attentive and careful in dealing with a loved one.

Pride is an illusory and unreasonable exaggeration of one’s own merits, and the desire for everyone around him to recognize this. A person is so carried away by his apparent superiority over other people that he does not notice their advantages and achievements, as well as the vices in himself. What is pride in the Orthodox understanding, what kind of sin is it and can it be overcome.

In Orthodoxy it is believed that this sin entered the world with the fall of Adam and Eve. But the appearance of this passion was recorded much earlier, even before the creation of the world. Its authorship belongs to Lucifer himself.

Dennitsa did not want to be subordinate to the Almighty; the most powerful angel, overcome by pride, considered himself equal to God. As a result, the rebel was cast down to the earth, and then to the underworld, where the light and grace of God do not reach.

So it is in earthly life. At the heart of every rebellion or revolution is human pride, the desire to gain power over other people or to build their own “paradise.” The communists, like any revolutionaries, were continuers of the work of Lucifer, they wanted to build a new happy world without God. What kind of humility could we be talking about here? Such a word did not even exist in the everyday life of Soviet citizens.

But with the fall of the Bolshevik system, little changed. There is no less pride in people. New values ​​began to be introduced into consciousness, no better than the previous ones. Building market relations aimed people exclusively at success and career growth. The pursuit of material wealth made us forget about the search for God.

Attention! You can find out what pride is from various Orthodox sources on the Internet, as well as on the Wikipedia website.

Signs

If we depict in the form of a tree all the sins and vices that can be found in a person, then pride will be its root system. According to the teachings of the holy fathers, pride is the source of all evil. How does this passion manifest itself?

A person who carries the sin of pride in his heart:

1. Doesn't notice his mistakes.
2. Doesn't take criticism well.
3. He becomes despondent from defeat.
4. Jealous of others.
5. Tormented by other people's success.
6. He does not find peace when someone is better than himself.
7. Disregards people who are inferior.
8. He is a hypocrite and curries favor with those who are higher in rank.

All these are signs that pride in a person has grown enormously. Such manifestations of sin can be eradicated by introducing humble thoughts and love for one’s neighbor into the consciousness.

This can happen naturally, because often life itself humbles us. We get sick, grow old, experience separation from people dear to us, we don’t always get what we want.

And all this happens due to the unwillingness to fight sin.

Probably, God himself wants a person sick with pride to encounter thousands of small and large obstacles in his life so that he knows that he does not command the world and is not its master, but is the King and Creator. If a person humbles himself and sees the Creator’s providence in everything, it will be much easier for him to live.

Attention! A person must humble himself, work on himself internally, learn to see and recognize his sins.

If you don’t voluntarily break and destroy your pride and don’t fight it diligently, then God will eradicate this sin, because He loves us and doesn’t want people to become like demons. The Lord wants us to have mercy, compassion, prayer, faith, joy, simplicity in our hearts, so life itself will humble us through sorrows and problems. There are several manifestations of the sin of pride.

Condemnation

Pride has different types. Its presence in a person can be recognized, for example, by condemnatory speeches about others.

Pride always considers itself more righteous than everyone else, since it loves to elevate itself above everyone, using any, even the slightest, opportunity for this.

How many merciless assessments we gave to our neighbors, each time forgetting that God is the true judge, since he knows everything about this person: thoughts, circumstances and actions, both in the past and in the present, as well as the future.

Often the Lord, seeing how Christians condemn others, allows them to fall into the same sins. This humbles the soul and helps you see your own vices as clearly as those of others. Only death can sum up human life. We usually see only part of the iceberg, its tip. Much in the life and soul of other people is hidden for us behind an impenetrable veil, so we must leave the judgment to God, the only heart-teller and judge.

Schism - the legacy of fallen angels

There are always people who are unhappy with what happens in the church. They look for shortcomings in the work of the church hierarchy, sow confusion and suspicion among Orthodox believers, who, on the contrary, need to unite.

There is a lot of false information and false testimonies about clergy and monastics in the press and on the Internet.

People who write such messages are driven solely by pride, which lays the foundation for any split.

How many new churches have appeared now, what names do they call themselves? And each of them claims that it is she who is purer and holier than the others. The same feeling formed the basis of the Old Believer movement, since it is guided not by love for God and the desire to preserve His will regarding the organization of church rituals, but by a high opinion of its exclusivity, righteousness and hatred of Patriarch Nikon.

The only proper way to fix anything in the church is to cultivate your own piety. And let God be the judge of careless hierarchs. They have always been there at all times. John Chrysostom also wrote about this: “... Lawless people, burdened with a thousand crimes, invaded the church, tax farmers became abbots...”. Despite this, the saint never called for a schism and resignedly submitted to his superior hierarchs. He knew that this was the sin of schism, and it could not be washed away even by martyrdom.

Prelest - demonic temptation

One of the most terrible branches of pride is prelest. For believers, it manifests itself in the form of unusual spiritual experiences, since with it they can feel something or even foresee something.

This happens if a person performed his exploits and labors for show, and not for God. Deep down in his soul he expected praise and recognition from the people around him, and thus opened himself up to the influence of demonic suggestion.

In the lives of holy ascetics there are numerous examples of demonic seduction. One of the hermits, succumbing to hostile forces, believed that angels were coming to him. The ascetic did not doubt for a minute whether he was worthy of such honor and praise? And he fell into delusion and completely trusted what the angels of “light” told him about. One day, his father according to the flesh went to visit the hermit. While he was still on his way, demons appeared to the monk in angelic guise and told him that the devil himself was coming, taking the form of his elderly father. And they advised to kill the stranger as soon as he crossed the threshold of the hut, which the unfortunate man did exactly. This is a clear example of what pride leads to.

How to overcome the demons within yourself

How to cope with sin, the habit of exalting oneself over one’s neighbors, despising them, condemning them. How to overcome pride, what ways to fight it.

The most powerful of sins is overcome by the highest human virtue - love for God and neighbor. Love for the Creator lies in fulfilling his commandments.

The Holy Fathers say that the most effective weapon against pride is love. How to learn to love your neighbor and overcome pride in your heart.

Love is one of the main commandments left to us by God on the tablets of Moses. But it is also the most difficult to accomplish. All other commandments are only a natural consequence of love for God and man, or steps leading to it. This is a feeling that unites us with the Heavenly Father himself, for “God is love.”

Unfortunately, not everyone correctly understands what it is. Often those pleasant moments and sensations that communication with another person gives us are mistaken for love. I feel good with him, which means I love him - this is a misunderstanding of the essence of this feeling. Such a consumer attitude cannot be called love. It ends very quickly as soon as the other person begins to dissatisfy us with something.

True love gives and demands nothing in return. It contains the main source of spiritual eternal joy. And this is not at all the consumer feeling that arises in us when we receive any material benefits.

Love is service. Christ gave us an example of such a relationship when he washed the feet of his disciples. So He loves us, even though we are sinners, lazy and disobedient.

The feeling of love must be cultivated in oneself every day. It cannot exist without our help and efforts. Otherwise, it will fade away very quickly from random circumstances, mood, behavior of others. Love is commanded to us by Christ. And the reward for this work is the Kingdom of Heaven.

But in the beginning you will have to literally force yourself. If you're in a bad mood, don't infect others with it, it's not their fault that things aren't working out for you in life. If someone offended you, go and reconcile first. Pride will leave your heart and it will become more receptive to love. Thus conquering himself day after day, soon a person will no longer be able to live differently. He will never cease to give love to everyone.

In love, it is very important to learn to see the value of another person. Each of us has something good to love. Only by learning to find positive qualities in others can you change your attitude towards them and stop judging and exalting yourself. Love drives pride out of the soul, since it does not coexist with it within the confines of one heart.

The greatest expert on the depths of the human spirit, Rev. Isaac the Syrian in his 41st word says: “He who feels his sin is higher than he who raises the dead with his prayer; he who is worthy to see himself is superior to him who is worthy to see angels.” It is to this knowledge of oneself that consideration of the question that we posed in the title leads to. And pride, and pride, and vanity, we can add here - arrogance, arrogance, conceit - all these are different types of one basic phenomenon - “focus on oneself” . Of all these words, two are distinguished by the most solid meaning: vanity and pride; they, according to the “Ladder,” are like a youth and a man, like grain and bread, like the beginning and the end.

Symptoms of vanity, this initial sin: impatience of reproaches, thirst for praise, seeking easy ways, continuous focus on others - what will they say? what will it look like? what will they think? Vanity sees the approaching spectator from afar and makes the angry ones affectionate, the frivolous - serious, the absent-minded - concentrated, the gluttonous - abstinent, etc. - all this while there are spectators. The same focus on the viewer explains the sin of self-justification, which often creeps in unnoticed even into our confession: “sinful like everyone else..... only minor sins..... didn’t kill anyone, didn’t steal.”

The demon of vanity rejoices, says the Rev. John Climacus, seeing the increase in our virtues: the more successes we have, the more food for vanity. “When I fast, I become vain; When, in order to conceal my feat, I hide it, I am vain about my prudence. If I dress nicely, I become vain, and if I change into thin clothes, I become even more vain. If I begin to speak, I have vanity; if I maintain silence, I indulge in it even more. Wherever you turn this thorn, it will all turn upward with its spokes.” As soon as a good feeling, a direct spiritual movement appears in a person’s soul, a vainglorious glance at oneself immediately appears, and behold, the most precious movements of the soul disappear, melt like snow in the sun. They melt, which means they die; This means – thanks to vanity – the best that is in us dies, which means – we kill ourselves with vanity and replace the real, simple, good life with ghosts.

Increased vanity gives birth pride .

Pride is extreme self-confidence, with the rejection of everything that is not one’s own, a source of anger, cruelty and malice, a refusal of God’s help, a “demonic stronghold.” She is the “copper wall” between us and God (Abba Pimen); it is enmity towards God, the beginning of all sin, it is in all sin. After all, every sin is a free surrender of oneself to one’s passion, a conscious violation of God’s law, insolence against God, although “one who is subject to pride has an extreme need for God, for people cannot save such a person” (“The Ladder”).

Where does this passion come from? How does it start? What does it eat? What stages does it go through in its development? By what signs can you recognize her?

The latter is especially important because the proud usually does not see his sin. A certain wise old man admonished one brother in spirit so that he should not be proud; and he, blinded by his mind, answered him: “Forgive me, father, I have no pride.” The wise old man answered him: “How could you, child, better prove your pride if not with this answer!”

In any case, if it is difficult for a person to ask for forgiveness, if he is touchy and suspicious, if he remembers evil and condemns others, then these are all undoubtedly signs of pride.

In the “Word on the Gentiles” by St. Athanasius the Great there is the following passage: “People fell into self-lust, preferring their own contemplation to the divine.” This brief definition reveals the very essence of pride: man, for whom hitherto the center and object of desire was God, turned away from Him and fell into “ itself -lust”, desired and loved himself more than God, preferred contemplation of himself to divine contemplation.

In our life, this appeal to “self-contemplation” and “self-lust” has become our nature and manifests itself at least in the form of a powerful instinct self-preservation , both in our physical and mental lives.

Just as a malignant tumor often begins with a bruise or prolonged irritation of a certain place, so the disease of pride often begins either from a sudden shock to the soul (for example, great grief), or from prolonged personal well-being, due, for example, to success, luck, constant exercise of one’s talent.

Often this is a so-called “temperamental” person, enthusiastic, passionate, talented. This is a kind of erupting geyser, which with its continuous activity prevents both God and people from approaching it. He is full, absorbed, intoxicated with himself. He sees and feels nothing except his passion, his talent, which he enjoys, from which he receives complete happiness and satisfaction. It is hardly possible to do anything with such people until they themselves fizzle out, until the volcano goes out. This is the danger of any giftedness, any talent. These qualities must be balanced by full, deep spirituality.

In the opposite cases, in experiences of grief, the result is the same: a person is “consumed” by his grief, the world around him dims and fades in his eyes; he can neither think nor talk about anything except about his grief; he lives by it, he clings to it, in the end, as the only thing he has left, as the only meaning of his life.

Often this focus on oneself develops in quiet, submissive, silent people, whose personal life has been suppressed since childhood, and this “suppressed subjectivity gives rise, as compensation, to an egocentric tendency” (Jung, “Psychological Types”), in a wide variety of manifestations: touchiness, suspiciousness, coquetry, desire to attract attention, finally, even in the form of direct psychosis of the nature of obsessive ideas, delusions of persecution or delusions of grandeur.

So, self-focus takes a person away from the world and from God; it, so to speak, splits off from the general trunk of the worldview and turns into shavings curled around an empty space.

Part 2. How this spiritual illness goes away

Let's try to outline the main stages in the development of pride from slight complacency to extreme spiritual darkness and complete death.

At first it is just preoccupation with oneself, almost normal, accompanied by a good mood that often turns into frivolity. The person is pleased with himself, often laughs, whistles, hums, and snaps his fingers. Likes to seem original, to amaze with paradoxes, to make jokes; exhibits special tastes and is capricious in food. Willingly gives advice and intervenes in a friendly manner in other people's affairs; involuntarily reveals his exceptional interest in himself with such phrases (interrupting someone else’s speech): “no, what I I’ll tell you,” or “no, I know better case”, or “I have a habit...”, or “I adhere to the rule...”.

At the same time, there is a huge dependence on the approval of others, depending on which a person suddenly blossoms, then withers and sours. But in general, at this stage the mood remains light. This type of egocentrism is very characteristic of youth, although it also occurs in adulthood.

A person will be happy if at this stage he is confronted with serious concerns, especially about others (marriage, family), work, labor. Or his religious path will captivate him and he, attracted by the beauty of spiritual achievement, will see his poverty and squalor and desire grace-filled help. If this does not happen, the disease develops further.

There is sincere confidence in one's superiority. Often this is expressed in uncontrollable verbosity. After all, what is talkativeness but, on the one hand, a lack of modesty, and on the other, self-delight. The selfish nature of verbosity is not diminished in the least by the fact that this verbosity is sometimes on a serious topic; a proud person can talk about humility and silence, glorify fasting, debate the question: what is higher - good deeds or prayer.

Self-confidence quickly turns into passion for command; he encroaches on someone else's will (without enduring the slightest encroachment on his own), disposes of someone else's attention, time, energy, becomes arrogant and insolent. Your own business is important, someone else’s is trivial. He takes on everything, interferes in everything.

At this stage, the proud person's mood deteriorates. In his aggressiveness, he naturally encounters opposition and rebuff; is irritability, stubbornness, grumpiness; he is convinced that no one understands him, not even his confessor; clashes with the world intensify, and the proud man finally makes a choice: “I” against people (but not yet against God).

The soul becomes dark and cold, arrogance, contempt, anger, and hatred settle in it. The mind becomes darkened, the distinction between good and evil becomes confused, because... it is replaced by the distinction between “mine” and “not mine.” He goes beyond all obedience and is unbearable in any society; his goal is to lead his line, to shame, to defeat others; he greedily seeks fame, even scandalous, taking revenge on the world for lack of recognition. If he is a monk, then he leaves the monastery, where everything is unbearable for him, and looks for his own path. Sometimes this power of self-affirmation is aimed at material acquisition, career, social and political activities, sometimes, if there is talent, at creativity, and here the proud person can, thanks to his drive, have some victories. On this same basis, schisms and heresies are created.

Finally, at the last step, a person breaks with God. If earlier he committed sin out of mischief and rebellion, now he allows himself everything: sin does not torment him, it becomes his habit; if at this stage it can be easy for him, then it is easy for him with the devil and on dark paths. The state of the soul is gloomy, hopeless, complete loneliness, but at the same time sincere conviction in the rightness of his path and a feeling of complete security, while black wings rush him to death.

Strictly speaking, this state is not much different from insanity.

The proud person at this stage is in a state of complete isolation. Look at how he talks and argues: he either does not hear at all what is said to him, or hears only what coincides with his views; if they tell him something that disagrees with his opinions, he becomes angry, as if from a personal insult, mocks and furiously denies. In those around him he sees only those properties that he himself imposed on them, incl. even in his praises he remains proud, closed in on himself, impenetrable to the objective.

It is characteristic that the most common forms of mental illness - delusions of grandeur and delusions of persecution - directly follow from a “heightened sense of self” and are completely unthinkable for humble, simple, self-forgetting people. After all, psychiatrists also believe that mental illness (paranoia) is caused mainly by an exaggerated sense of one’s own personality, a hostile attitude towards people, loss of normal ability to adapt, and perversity of judgment. The classic paranoid never criticizes himself, he is always right in his own eyes and is acutely dissatisfied with the people around him and the conditions of his life.

This is where the depth of the Rev.’s definition becomes clear. John Climacus: “Pride is the extreme misery of the soul.”

The proud suffers defeat on all fronts:

Psychologically – melancholy, darkness, infertility.

Morally – loneliness, drying up of love, anger.

Physiologically and pathologically – nervous and mental illness.

From a theological point of view, it is the death of the soul, which precedes physical death, Gehenna while still alive.

In conclusion, it is natural to pose the question: how to fight the disease, what to counteract the death that threatens those following this path? The answer follows from the essence of the question: firstly, humility; then - obedience, step by step - to loved ones, loved ones, the laws of the world, objective truth, beauty, everything good in us and outside of us, obedience to the Law of God, finally - obedience to the Church, its statutes, its commandments, its mysterious influences. And for this - what stands at the beginning of the Christian path: “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself.”

Rejected... and rejected every day; let a person take up his cross every day - the cross of enduring insults, putting oneself in last place, enduring grief and illness, silently accepting reproach, complete unconditional obedience - immediate, voluntary, joyful, fearless, constant.

And then the path will open to him into the kingdom of peace and deepest humility, which destroys all passions.

To our God, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, glory.

1. Recognizing pride.The most difficult step in the fight against pride is recognizing it. Therefore, it is very important to listen to any criticism. If a person recognizes her, then a fight is possible. But the problem with pride is that a person is completely sure that this does not apply to him.
Sometimes, simply recognizing one’s sin and its destructive effect gives a person the will and strength not to repeat it again. But when sinful behavior has already entered into a person’s nature, then it will be more difficult to overcome it.
The Holy Scripture encourages us to know the truth because it will free us from all untruth and we will become free from sinful consequences. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free(John 8:32).
So: (1) the search for praise - replace with modesty, (2) self-exaltation - replace with silence and modesty, (3) contempt of others - replace with recognition of their good qualities and love, (4) disobedience to superiors - replace with silence and obedience, (5) not accepting advice - replace with respect and listening, (6) resentment - replace with silence, (7) inability to forgive - replace with forgiveness, (8) rancor - replace with forgiveness, (9) do not want to give in - - replace with concession, (10) the inability to admit a mistake - replace with admission of a mistake, (11) the desire to be better than others - replace with modesty, (12) the desire to show your will everywhere - replace with compliance, etc.
During a battle, if something is difficult to do, you need to pray for help. During Lent we need to intensify our struggle. Thus, after a certain time, the new behavior will become our standard and we will be cured.

2. Stages of healing.How can we fight the disease of pride, especially if it has already become part of our nature? The method of struggle is the same as with any other passion. This is a difficult and complex path and, of course:

1. First of all, you need to turn to the Lord God for help - you need to pray for Him to help.
2. After this, you need to talk and confess to your confessor.
3. Then, in order to fight the enemy, you first need to recognize him. So, you need to study pride and read everything you can find about it.
4. After this, you need to think through all your behavior (deeds, words and thoughts) at home, at school, at work, etc. from the point of view of pride and recognize it in all its manifestations.
5. After identification, you need to monitor its manifestation and when it appears, always replace it with the opposite virtue.
6. During the prayer rule, read “Prayer for healing pride” (see Appendix).
7. You need to fast: fast, confess and receive communion.

3. Post. Fasting is the most basic school in the fight against pride—the school of obedience. Therefore, you need to strictly monitor the implementation of all the rules of fasting.

4. Obedience. In many ways, the source of pride is disobedience to the Lord God. Therefore, one of the simplest methods of combating pride is obedience, even any obedience. In monasteries, in order to eradicate pride from some monks, they are given obedience - some kind of dirty work.

5. Opposite virtue. Every sin has an opposite virtue. Since pride is not one sin, but many, it is necessary to recognize (identify) all its components and their opposite virtues. Having done this, you need to be attentive to its manifestation and, whenever its component appears, parry and neutralize it with the corresponding virtue. Saint John of Kronstadt in his immortal diary “My Life in Christ” writes the following:

“The whole art of treating illnesses of the spirit consists in not dwelling on them at all and not in the least indulging them, but immediately cutting them off; pride has attacked you - quickly humble yourself to the ground; stinginess has attacked you - rather be generous; the love of money has attacked - rather, praise non-covetousness and be jealous of it. Another disease has attacked you - do not indulge it, do not warm it, but beat it, crucify it.”

Here it is appropriate to quote an extract from the work “Christian Moral Teaching”

“Every sin has an opposite virtue.

In the fight against some sin, you need to do the corresponding virtue. Thus, the sinful habit is gradually replaced by Christian virtue. Here are some of them:
(I) From Ten Commandments: unbelief-faith, idleness-work, laziness-hard work, disrespect for parents-love and respect, murder-life, adultery-chastity, theft-gift, lie-truth, envy-joy.
(II) From Beatitudes: pride-humility, unmercifulness-mercy, sinful thoughts-pure, starting quarrels-peacemaking.
(III) From confession aids: condemnation-seeing your shortcomings, anger-calmness, slander-defense, insolence-politeness, irritability-restraint, despondency-joy in Christ, rewarding evil for evil-rewarding good for evil, bitterness-calmness, murmuring-thanksgiving, self-justification-recognition guilt, contradiction-humility, self-will-obedience, reproach-calmness, slander-abstinence, laughing at someone-sympathy, temptation-chastity, selfishness-love, pride-love, ambition-modesty, gluttony-fasting, vanity-modesty, unclean thoughts are pure, avarice is generosity (non-acquisitiveness, lack of money), unclean views are pure.”

6. Shift your attention.This method is one of the simplest ways to combat sin. It consists of transferring attention from an object or situation that causes negative, sinful thoughts, words or deeds and forcing yourself to think about something else. The best thing, of course, is about the opposite virtue.

7. Prayer for healing pride. As was said above (601, 602), before every task and especially when faced with difficulties, you need to pray. This is natural for a Christian. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ said “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).
In this part of our work we are talking about something else, about a special prayer for healing pride. This is a “Prayer for the Eradication of Pride,” which in general you can write yourself, having thought through all your weaknesses that make up pride. For each part, you need to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask for help not to fall into such a sin, but instead to do the opposite virtue. You can write it yourself, or with the help of a confessor, and then, during the prayer rule, read it every day.

8. Penance. With the constant manifestation of some kind of sinful habit, a component of pride, you can use penance, that is, apply some kind of “pedagogical punishment” to yourself. In monasteries, in this laboratory of spirituality and morality, there is a large number of prostrations. In this way, one can be cured of many sinful habits.

9. Part with the source of pride. As stated above (406), work can promote pride. Therefore, sometimes, in order to recover from it, you need to leave the source of pride, from such work and take a simpler one, but one that is spiritually creative and not destructive.

10. Illness humbles pride.Illness usually humbles the proud. A person must earn the Kingdom of Heaven through his life or through suffering and be cleansed from sin. Therefore, the Lord God sometimes applies “pedagogical punishment” and allows some kind of illness in order to teach something to an arrogant proud person.

11. Over the years, people become humble.With old age, many things that contribute to pride go away, a person humbles himself and begins to gradually recover. For example, beauty, strength, an important position at work or in society disappears, a person begins to get sick, feels the approach of death, etc. All this gradually humbles a person.

Conclusion. After reading this work, a proud man stands before us - an unhappy person who loses something at every turn in life. He is not distinguished by intelligence, since the sin of pride blinds him and he lives an incomplete life. Unfortunately, in the West this type is common. In other words, a proud person is full of sinful passions that prevent him from living normally and communicating with people.
Proud people cannot reach the top in human relationships. They cannot truly love, cannot truly communicate, or have warm relationships with people. But, if communication is not really required at work, then a proud person can work well and even succeed.
From the description of pride it is clear that it creates fertile ground for all sorts of mental and spiritual disorders. One of them is paranoia. The more we study and understand a proud person, the more we realize that he lives in darkness and does not realize it himself.