This is the conclusion to the essay from “Diary of a Russian Priest” that I started earlier. This details the terrible effects that pride has on us when left unchecked. As he progresses, it begins to sound like the spreading of a cancer. The state of someone completely lost to pride, he says, “can scarcely be distinguished from insanity.” Pretty grim stuff, but worth reading to the end (or skipping there, if you’re one of those) to find out how to avoid and combat pride.

Let us try to point out the main landmarks in the development of pride from mild self-satisfaction to extreme spiritual darkening and final destruction.

In the beginning: merely a preoccupation with self, an almost normal condition accompanied by a happy mood which often turns into frivolity. A person is pleased with himself, laughs frequently, whistles, sings, snaps his fingers. He likes to be original, to surprise others with his paradoxes, to be witty; he manifests certain caprices, is fastidious in food. He willingly gives advice, meddling in a friendly way in other people’s business. He involuntarily betrays his exceptional interest in himself in such phrases as these (interrupting others): ‘Let me tell you’, or ‘I know a better one’, or, ‘I am in the habit of…’, ‘The rule I follow is …’, ‘I usually prefer’.

Speaking of another person’s sorrow, he often exclaims unconsciously: ‘I was so upset, I cannot get over it!’ On the other hand this type of person relies enormously on other people’s approval, and depending on whether it is given or withheld he becomes either radiant or dejected. Generally speaking, however, his mood at this stage is cheerful. This sort of egocentricity is characteristic of youth, though it is found in mature age also.

It is fortunate for man if at this stage he encounters serious worries, especially about others (marriage, a family), work, labor. Or else if he is drawn toward religious life: attracted by the beauty of spiritual effort he will see his own wretchedness and littleness and will desire the help of grace. Unless this happens, the sickness will develop further.

Next, there appears a sincere belief in one’s own superiority, often accompanied by an unchecked flow of words. After all, what is verbosity, if not on the one hand a lack of modesty, and on the other pleasure in a primitive process of self-disclosure? The egoistic character of garrulousness is just as bad even when, as sometimes happens, the flow of words is inspired by a serious topic: the proud man may comment on the virtues of humility and silence; he may praise fasting or discuss whether good works are preferable to prayer.

Self-assurance turns rapidly into a passion for commanding. The proud man encroaches upon the will of others, while not tolerating the slightest encroachment on his own will. He imposes himself upon the attention, time and energy of all around him. He becomes impudent and brazen. His own affairs are important; other people’s concerns are of no consequence. He undertakes everything, interferes everywhere.

At this stage the proud man’s mood alters. As a result of his aggressiveness he naturally meets opposition and rebuff; he becomes irritable, obstinate, quarrelsome; he is convinced that nobody understands him, not even his spiritual director. His clashes with ‘the world’ grown sharper, and the proud individual finally makes a choice: his ego sets itself in opposition against men, although not yet against God.

And now his soul becomes dark and cold; arrogance, contempt, anger and hate inhabit it. His mind is obscured, the distinction between good and evil grow confused, for it is replaced by the distinction between ‘mine’ and ‘not mine’. He shirks all obedience, he becomes insufferable in every society; his goal is to pursue his own line, to put people to shame, to shock them; he greedily seeks publicity, even if it is scandalous, taking his revenge on the world which did not recognize him and thus getting his own back. If he is a monk he leaves the monastery, which he can stand no longer, and seeks his own way. At times, this force of self-affirmation is directed toward material ends — a career, political or social activity — and, if the person is talented, it may lead to creative work. In this field, the proud man may win a few victories, thanks to the pressure he exercises. Heresies and schisms also arise on this soil.

Finally, at the last stage, the proud man breaks with God Himself. If he previously sinned out of mischief or mutinousness, he now permits himself every excess; sin no longer worries him, it becomes habitual. If during this period he feels any happiness, he is happy with the devil and along dark roads. The condition of his soul is somber, closed to the light, his loneliness is complete; at the same time he is sincerely convinced that he has chosen the right path; he feels perfect security, while dark wings whirl him along to destruction.

In fact the condition of such a man can scarcely be distinguished from insanity.

Even in this life, the proud man dwells in almost complete isolation (the darkness of hell). See how he talks and argues; either he does not hear at all what is said to him, or he can only hear what fits his views; if something goes against his opinion, he is as furious as if he had been personally insulted; he answers sarcastically or makes a passionate rebuttal. In those who surround him he sees only the characteristics which he attributes to them; thus even when he praises others, he remains proud, locked in himself, blind to objective truth.

It is typical that the most common forms of mental illness — megalomania and the persecution complex — are directly derived from ‘excessive self-consciousness’; it would be quite impossible to find these defects in the humble, the simple, the self-forgetful. Psychiatrists regard an exaggerated sense of one’s own personality, a hostile attitude towards other people, the loss of a normal capacity of adjustment, and distorted judgments as the main causes of insanity (paranoia). The classic paranoiac never criticizes himself, he is always right in his own eyes and bitterly displeased with the people around him and with the conditions of his life.

Thus we come to realize the depth of the definitions given by St. John of the Ladder: ‘Pride is the extreme poverty of the soul.’

The proud suffers defeat on all fronts.

Psychologically, he suffers from melancholy, darkness, sterility.

Morally, from solitude, the withering of love, malice.

From the theological point of view, from a death of the soul preceding physical death, from hell during this present life.

Epistemologically, from solipsism.

Physiologically and pathologically, from nervous and mental sickness.

In conclusion, we naturally ask ourselves: how shall we fight against this disease, with what shall we oppose the destruction that threatens those who follow this way?

The answer is derived from the very essence of the question. Pride is overcome by humility, by obedience to objective truth, an obedience undertaken in gradual stages: obedience to those we love; to the laws of this world; to objective truth; to beauty; to all that is good in us and outside us; obedience to God’s teaching; and finally obedience to the Church, to her commandments, to her sacramental life.

And in order to achieve this humility and obedience, we must undertake that which stands first on the Christian way: ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me’ (Matt. xvi. 24).

Man must deny himself, deny himself every day. Man must take up his cross ‘daily’, as the oldest manuscripts have it (Luke ix. 23) — the cross of patiently accepting grievances, choosing the last place, bearing sorrows and illness, the silent acceptance of insults, of full unreserved obedience — immediate, voluntary, joyful, fearless and constant.

Then he will find the way to the realm of peace, of that ‘deepest humility which destroys all passions’.

Glory be to God who ‘resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to humble’ (1 Peter v. 5).