Am reading Brene Brown's "Gifts of Imperfection", in which she states that one cannot have compassion for others without having compassion for oneself. She goes further - the two, she says, are directly proportional.

on the other hand, a PhD in the Psychology Today blogosphere writes >> 'There is no correlation between the trait of self-compassion and feelings of compassion towards others.'

These are just the two most recent *conflicting* statements I've heard form the overall T community on this subject; many, many others.
Sheesh, make up your mind, people.