I have always marvelled at the reasoning that moves from the premise, "Love your neighbour as yourself" to the conclusion, "Therefore you ought to love yourself." I think this process is so common that people are beginning to accept it from osmosis. One of my own sons has been persuaded of its validity. The next step is to somehow learn to love yourself better (not a very difficult task since it comes so naturally).If you were in a position to use force to prevent a crime it is conceivable you could save the poterntial victim and also save the criminal from the consequences of a more serious crime. If that is so, why couldn't a person defend himself against a criminal? If we are to love our neignbor as ourself it would seem appropriate to love ourself with the same defense we would employ on behalf of another.
The sciptural command, "Love your neighbour as yourself" correctly assumes that everyone loves himself, and that we should love our neighbours just as much. We may purchase a new truck for ourselves. Would we consider purchasing one for the neighbour who needs one? Some of us would be reluctant even to loan him our truck, let alone purchase one for him.
One of the most serious flaws in fallen human nature is self-love. When we teach children to love themselves with the uses of books (100 ways to raise self-esteem) we help them feed upon their natural arrogance. Yes, we need to encourage children—tell them they are doing well when they are in fact doing well. But to tell them they've done good work when they haven't, can harm them.
I recall a teacher who posted a particular child's art work along with that of the other children. The child's work was an ugly mess, but the teacher wanted to make sure the child wouldn't develop low self-esteem. The child's father came to the classroom one day and saw his daughter's "art" on display—and he became angry. He mistakenly thought the teacher had displayed it in order to embarass or ridicule his daughter.