«Egoism and altruism» is a hardy perennial of philosophers and now a staple for academic psychologists.  Are people basically self-interested or basically concerned for others?

Trick question.  Once the issue is posed like this, any hope of understanding oneself or acting sensibly is lost. 

People act in their own self-interest.  They must.  Some are certainly more self-centred than others.  People are also capable of concern for others and demonstrate benevolence.  They must.  Otherwise it would be hard to live in groups.  Again, there is variation amongst people in the degree of altruism.  For some of you, it might be hard to live with yourself if you were irredeemably selfish. 

The issue is never what academics or philosophers assert people 'are'—and which, supposedly, is what you are or what I am.  The issue in real life is always about what am I going to do at this moment in this situation given who I am.  The variations here are almost infinite.

Yes, we do have tendencies and styles.  But we are not More...

There is a saying: They beat you and they beat you and they don't even let you cry.  But why do they beat you?  One reason might be to get you to see the truth.  Picking up the truth of life is referred to as «the school of hard knocks».  

You know that our psyche is assimilated to our body … so all psychological qualities are actually physical qualities.  A person is hard, warm, brittle, bouncy, deep, &c.  In a similar way, psychologically, a truth that affects your self-esteem is experienced as a blow. 

This little story is by way of an introduction and an admission that, unlike many, I am not a perfect person.  When I described my experience of reviewing my wonderful insights as shock-horror! in that recent blog, I was not 100% honest. More...