EDITORIAL: This just in: Self-help books are not helpful
Self-help authors promise to help with self-esteem, motivation and other abstract areas of our lives without actually having the capacity to do so
There is no cover art gaudier, no shelf space more wasted, no ideas more banal and yet predatory than those of a self-help book. Self-proclaimed experts on “life” spend an average of 200 pages explaining to their audience how best to live their lives.
Vague advice and meaningless aphorisms are stretched out between irrelevant personal anecdotes and a frankly lazy turn of phrase in what can only be described as the literary version of elementary school, “You can do it!” posters.
Books with obnoxious titles like “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment,” “Big Magic” or “The Secret” promise untold amounts of motivation and insight to any sap who forks over around $20. Many of these titles are available at our very own New Brunswick Barnes and Noble.
Books written by experts giving advice about their fields are not the target of this editorial. Tutorials, memoirs, textbooks and how-tos can afford to lecture readers because there is some knowledge possessed by the author that the reader might need, or at least tell an interesting story.
Rachael Ray can author cat food cookbooks until the end of time, but it will be a cold day in hell when her advice on sexual satisfaction actually satisfies anyone.
The origin story of these ridiculous self-serving paper-wasters begins in 1859 with a man named Samuel Smiles, a name so ridiculous no joke we could come up with would do it justice. Smiles published a book misleadingly titled “Self-Help” and one line from this collection of personal mantras and unqualified advice, in particular, stands out.
He writes, self-assured, “Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.” Take a moment to absorb this sage advice. Be a sponge for the intellect of a man who contributed to something called “New Thought” because old thought was not cutting it.
This phrase captures the essence of self-help. Let us break down the reasoning. Help from “without” — from other people, experts, friends, family, does nothing for you. You can only help yourself. The logic of this idea invalidates itself. The “help” that Smiles is giving us through his book cannot help us because it is help from others.
But the contradictory nature of self-help through the medium of other people’s advice does not stop the self-improvement market from quickly approaching its 2022 target worth of $13.2 billion.
People like Tony Robbins get paid exorbitant amounts for books like “Unlimited Power.” Robbins is worth $600 million dollars and while his one-on-one coaching with celebrities may be useful, sound bites like “People fail at life because they major in minor things” or “new life comes from new choices” are hollow and pointless.
The authors of self-help books, who are often unqualified, are profiting off the struggles of regular people who need help. Readers facing mental health challenges who want to find motivation, people who are seeking healthier lifestyles, workers worn out by their dead-end jobs and individuals who just do not feel happy are just a few examples of people who might turn to the self-help shelf.
In some ways, reading a book that validates your struggles can help, but oftentimes, these books blame the reader for not being strong enough to snap out of it. In some cases, reading a self-help book makes us feel productive without actually anything about the behaviors or life choices that hurt us.
That is because the advice is empty. It is a distorted echo of philosophy (which does hold value) that is over-simplified and rewritten in a way that deceives the reader into thinking they have learned something new.
“The Wellness Syndrome”, a book written about this frenzy of faux self-improvement, describes the increased obsession with being emotionally, physically and mentally perfect. Vulnerable people are being deceived into thinking they can will their way into perfection by being told to just try harder by authors who more often than not just got lucky and stumbled their way into fame.
For example, actress Cameron Diaz has published the “Longevity Book” and “The Body Book”, both of which discuss things like eating and aging through the expert lens of someone with no specialized knowledge in this field. She theorizes that aging is a good thing and you should feel happy about getting older, and yet despite this landmark observation people continue to have midlife crises.
The wellness syndrome stems from an obsession with optimal productivity and continued sustained happiness at all times. The American fixation on happiness is what drives the sales of these books. We are so uncomfortable with sadness that we fail to address it through healthy means and instead pivot to strangers to tell us how to just smile and get on with it.
We dismiss unhappiness as something we can avoid if we just try hard enough. Self-help is the syndrome of America’s positivity disease.
People like Tony Robbins, Cameron Diaz or Samuel Smiles offer easy solutions to difficult problems without having the personal knowledge to actually help the individual lining their bank accounts. They promise to give you happiness, satisfaction and success. They cannot. They are strangers who, like everyone else, overcame difficulties in their life, but this does not qualify them to tell you how to live your life.
If you find yourself in a difficult situation ask for help from friends and family, people who are actually there to help you, or reach out to a doctor, therapist or other experienced professional. Invest in decisions that will help you. As a Rutgers student, you have access to Counseling, Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program and Psychiatric Services, use it! See a therapist, go to the doctor, drink water, eat healthy, exercise, breathe, meditate, journal, watch a sunset, sleep but most importantly do not lose your mind trying to be as successful and happy as possible.
The Daily Targum's editorials represent the views of the majority of the 153rd editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
