  The hypothesis is explored that fermion rest mass is due entirely to
self-interaction via virtual excitation of gauge bosons. This requires revising
the standard model to treat both chiral projections of a fermion field as SU(2)
doublets, which precludes Yukawa coupling to a scalar (Higgs) boson field. The
estimated self-interaction mass of the electron neutrino is
$0.291\times10^{-5}m_e$. The implied self-interaction mass of the Higgs boson
itself is very small, comparable to the neutrino. Because there is no direct
coupling to fermions, only to the $Z^0$ gauge boson, this can be reconciled
with failure to detect low-mass Higgs bosons. This argument eliminates many
undetermined parameters of the standard model, but requires an {\it ad hoc}
Lagrangian term to account for neutral current asymmetries. The proposed
algebraic formalism is consistent with fermion generations defined by distinct
eigenvalues of a self-interaction mass operator.
