power: personal power versus power over
- personal power:
- comes from within
- is characterized by
- self-confidence
- belief in oneself
- self-esteem
- power over another:
- is either given by, or must be taken from, the other
- means responsibility with the ability and the authority to carry out the responsibility
- The two kinds of power are independent of each other:
- a person who has given a lot of power over himself/herself to another may have a lot or very little personal power
- a person who holds a lot of power over another person may have a lot or very little personal power. For example, a good mother may have a lot of personal power. A bully, on the other hand, has very little personal power, and uses the power over others - which he has stolen from them - to try to get personal power. (It doesn't work, of course; you can't get personal power from another.)
- power, as the term will be used here from now on:
- refers to 'power over'