I don't really think there is such a thing as helping your fellow man with no strings attached. Everyone wants to be smarter than the next guy, and all of peoples' actions and words are subtle (and not so subtle) examples of a regular person's need to feel better than everyone else. I'm not saying people are inherently jerks, but there isn't a healthy person on the planet who doesn't want to feel smarter/stronger/better than another. So...
Should a person with a really low self-esteem temporarily seclude himself from the world until he builds up his own sense of self-worth? What about objective tests for self-worth (IQ tests/being objectively identified as ugly etc.) Does one take these tests at face value or dismiss them as something that is trying to calculate the incalculable? Can having low-self esteem ever be legitimately warranted, given the fact that these objective tests strive to give objective results? Is there are point where you stop listening to people?
Excuse my rambling and the itsy bitsy bit of wine in me right now.
