Selfishness is a subjective term. To some, it implies the concept and/or practice of concern with one's own interests in some sort of priority to the interests of others. To others, being "selfish" just means trying to meet your own needs. There are also those who believe the use of the term can be an attempt at manipulating someone else. What is "selfish" depends, then on one's perspective.
Selfishness regarded as good, or a healthy thing
There are some non-religious philosophies that hold a positive view of selfishness, usually on the basis that it isn't what the common usage refers to, and that the identification of 'promotion of the self' with 'evil' is an unhealthy practice that actually devalues some good qualities such as productivity or the taking of personal responsibility. One view is that since one needs to act in a mainly self-interested way in order to advance in life doing so should not be regarded as wrong, or labelled as harmful or inappropriate.
Similarly, individuals might ask themselves why they ought to choose to act unselfishly anyway if they have no guarantee in advance that others in the world will not act selfishly. One will tend to act selfishly for one's own self-protection, in a world where one mainly encounters others doing the same.
Furthermore, schools of thought such as psychological egoism view every behavior as 'selfish' in nature, even that of a so-called altruist. (meaning the 'atruist' behaves as such out of a personal self-interest, whether that be a desire to be selfless, a joy they get from giving to others, a debt they feel they need to repay to others or even some form of guilt) This is essentially saying that any choice to act is done so for a 'positive net gain' to self. This does not mean that the intended result need be completely 'positive' as far as the individuals' interest is concerned, merely that the intented result is 'better' for themselves than the alternatives. (e.g. going to the dentist may be a negative experience but it beats having a toothache)
Group selfishness (as compared to individual selfishness)
Selfishness usually refers to the self - that is, to the individual. However, in common speech, a group of people can be accused of "selfishness" too, in the sense that members of that group are not concerned with the welfare of anyone outside their group but are only inward-looking: concentrating on the needs of the group. This may in some circumstances be characterized as indirect self-interest.
Use of the term "Selfish" as manipulation
In some cases the use of the term "selfish" may simply be an attempt by one person to manipulate the person they are calling selfish. For example, consider a mother who wants her daughter to stay home and keep her company, or to help her clean the house. If the daughter wants to go out with her friends instead, a perfectly normal and healthy thing to do, the mother might call her "selfish".
Based on the theory of the iterated prisoner's dilemma, evolutionary biologists and game-theorists come to the conclusion that selfishness is - besides cooperation among relatives and genetically programmed behaviour - the basis for cooperation among individuals of the same or different species.
While some would characterize selfishness as the opposite of Altruism, a more indepth understanding of the nature of the two ideas (see Dawkin's Selfish Gene and the Prisoner's dilemma) and how they tend to overlap or follow directly from one another, leads others to consider it to be a false dichotomy based on artificially strict definitions.
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