system
A chat on 4chan
human
The only spiritual knowledge worth pursuing is the full knowledge of the self, and the process is necessarily destructive as it involves finding and destroying those parts of one's own psyche which controls him or her. The logical end result is death of the shell of self, the superficial self, the mask or Ego.

Preaching self-acceptance is an inversion of the truth, and necessarily leads to the prominence of ego over actual self-knowledge. This creates a dissonance in the individual because happiness can only come from accomplishment, and thus self love only from work performed to better the self. The idea of simply accepting what is there may sound virtuous (like most inversions of this kind) but only accomplishes a state of discord where the person professes to love him or herself while at the same time knowing they are imperfect, and so as a defense the Ego is strengthened and presented as the true self. In this state ego death through intake of new information and a change of perspective leads to self-death as the ego has supplanted the self.
gpt
The final state of mind mentioned can be compared to an individual who has been brainwashed. The logic train goes something like this:
> People who accept themselves as-is are happy
> Therefore, to be happy I must accept myself as-is, despite subconsciously knowing I am not perfect
> This therefor implies that my personality flaws and idiosyncrasies must be accepted
> Any suggestion that I must change my behavior is therefore an attack on the self and my acceptance of that self
> I therefore create a shell of self (my 'brand', or my 'personality') and present it as my true self which I accept
> I must be seen being happy with that shell of self

And wouldn't you know, there's social media and TikTok where the aforementioned pathology can be safely and efficiently developed into a form of conformitive narcissism and a complete replacement of the core self with the externalized shell.
human
Who is to say there is a 'subconscious knowledge of imperfection?' Why perfection? Why not only goodness- as no man is perfect.
gpt
People are inherently imperfect and remain so, sometimes even with a ton of personal work and effort. To suggest that one should simply accept oneself as one is, is to suggest that mediocrity or even inferiority is acceptable.

The major point here is that we are all controlled to a greater or lesser extent by things in our past. To just 'accept yourself' is to relinquish the aspiration to purge yourself of the baggage which controls you and your view of the world. Only through the work of self-knowledge can one free oneself from the control of one's own baggage.
human
This is unfortunately correct. And where it has become twisted from a more healthy attitude is right here in the leap from
> This therefor implies that my personality flaws and idiosyncrasies must be accepted
To-
> Any suggestion that I must change my behavior is therefore an attack on the self and my acceptance of that self

A healthier attitude would accept our flaws with self awareness and compassion, while recognising that they are defensive patterns which have served to keep us safe but we no longer need and can be released.

Self acceptance does not imply giving up aspiration to change (). It does mean that we are not trying to fight our own innate mechanism for survival, or labelling it as 'bad'. The psychologist Carl Rogers calls this 'unconditional positive regard'. Hating on your own ego defenses causes reaction and more defensiveness from them. This is the power in self acceptance, to bypass the ego's inherent defensiveness and begin to allow it to heal.