Rational-emotive therapy (RET) holds that much of what we call the human "ego" has little or no legitimacy and, when conceived of and given a global rating (e.g., the individual gets rated as "worthwhile" or "worthless"), interferes with survival and happiness. Certain aspects of "ego" do have a verifiable existence and lead to beneficial results: people do seem to exist, or have aliveness, for a number of years, and they also have self-consciousness, or awareness of their existence. In this sense, they have uniqueness, ongoingness, and "ego." But what they usually call their "self" or "totality" or "personality" has a vague, almost indefinable quality, and they cannot legitimately give it a single meaningful rating--cannot label it as "good" or "bad." They may well have good or bad traits--characteristics that help or hinder them in their goals of survival and happiness--but they really have no "self" that "is" good or bad. To increase their health and happiness, RET theory and practice recommends that they'd better resist the tendency to rate their "self" or "essence" and had better rate only their deeds, traits, acts, characteristics, and performances. (Author)