φιλαυτία
Philautia
Self-love — the root from which all passions grow
Maximos the Confessor identified philautia as the "mother of all passions" — the root from which every other destructive pattern grows. It is not healthy self-regard (which the tradition values) but the compulsive prioritization of your own comfort, pleasure, reputation, and safety over everything else.
Philautia operates beneath conscious awareness. You don't decide to be self-centered — it's the default operating system that the passions run on. Every logismos has its root in philautia: anger defends the self, vainglory inflates the self, greed secures the self, restlessness distracts the self from facing itself.
The antidote is not self-hatred (which is itself a form of self-obsession) but the gradual shift from self-centered to other-centered awareness through love, kenosis, and sustained practice. The prayer itself facilitates this shift: "have mercy on ME" is simultaneously an act of self-awareness and an act of self-surrender.