Self help techniques

Clinical: Approaches · Group therapy · Techniques · Types of problem · Areas of specialism · Taxonomies · Therapeutic issues · Modes of delivery · Model translation project · Personal experiences ·

The term self-help can refer to any case whereby an individual or a group, such as a support group, betters themselves economically, intellectually or emotionally. The connotations of the phrase often apply particularly to psychological or psychotherapeutic nostrums, purveyed through the popular genre of the "self-help" books and self-help personal development movements.

The concept of self-help has also found purchase, however, in more expansive genres. For many people, self-help has become a way of saving cost especially in legal settings, with self-help services available to help with routine legal matters from filing wills to domestic processes to recording property deeds. In merchandising, tendencies toward self-help have in recent years resulted in automated self-check-out payments systems. Self-help fuel pumps replaced full-service petroleum pumps in the United States in the late 20th Century.

The diverse genres in which self-help concepts are applied are bound together by an expansion of technologies that empower individuals to conduct both trivial and profound activities. Self-help book publishing arose from decentralization of ideology, from a growth of publishing industries using expanded printing technologies and at the pinnacle of growth, from the spread of new psychological sciences. Likewise, self-help legal services grew around expanded access to document production technology. The Internet, and the ever-expanding selection of commercial and information services it offers, is an example of movement toward self-help on a grand scale.

History

The first "self-help" book was - indeed - titled "Self-Help". It was written by Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) and was published in 1859. Its opening sentence is: "Heaven helps those who help themselves", a variation of "God helps them that help themselves", the oft-quoted maxim that appears in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac (1733-1758).

Criticisms

Though remaining popular, self-help books and programs have been criticized as offering "easy answers" to difficult personal problems. According to this view, the reader or participant receives the equivalent of a placebo while the writer and publisher collect the profits. The book God is My Broker asserts, "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one." Self help books have also been criticised for containing pseudoscientific assertions that tend to mislead the consumer. Finally, in her book I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional, Wendy Kaminer criticizes the self-help movement for encouraging people to focus on individual self-improvement, rather than joining collective social movements, to solve their problems.

In Defense of Self-help

A counter-argument is that some readers of self-help books are seeking "easy answers", but that doesn't mean the answers in the books are easy to apply. A book can suggest a course of action (easy or not), but only the reader can carry it out, and some readers are more willing to do so than others. Those who make the effort often do make improvements in their lives.

Steven Berglas wrote:

In fairness to [Mark] Monsky and other self-help authors, there is often much useful material in their writings, and much of the damage done by this body of literature is a function of the fact that these books are not read in depth or at all. Many people quote "insights" from the books based upon a cursory reading of the dust jackets and titles. (from Reclaiming the Fire by Steven Berglas (2001) ISBN 0679463216)

Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography:

As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.

While the method Franklin describes in his autobiography is straightforward and easy to understand, he is clearly not suggesting that it is easy to do. Some self-help authors may gloss over this distinction, but even when they don't, readers may overlook it. Franklin himself admitted that he was only partially successful, but he thought any improvement was preferable to none, and he continued his efforts over several years.

Research has shown that people often do solve problems on their own, in many cases using techniques that are similar to those used by psychotherapists. See chapters 4 and 8 in:

Mark A. Hubble, Barry L. Duncan, Scott D. Miller (Eds), The Heart and Soul of Change: What Works in Therapy, American Psychological Association (1999) ISBN 155798557X

Clinical: Approaches · Group therapy · Techniques · Types of problem · Areas of specialism · Taxonomies · Therapeutic issues · Modes of delivery · Model translation project · Personal experiences ·

Self help techniques are the methods used to achieve Self help

Resources

Books

SHAM: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless; by Steve Salerno. Crown Publishers, 2005. ISBN 1400054095
I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional: The Recovery Movement and Other Self-Help; by Wendy Kaminer. Vintage, 1993. ISBN 0679745858
Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical, & Financial Destiny; by Anthony Robbins. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 1991. ISBN 0671727346
Conversations on Success; collection featuring Sylvia Henderson, Deepak Chopra, Mark Victor Hansen, plus others. Insight Publishing, 2004. Available through http://tools.successlanguage.com/ ISBN 1932863060
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity; by David Allen. Viking Adult, 2001. ISBN 0670899240
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People; by Stephen Covey. Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN 0743272455
Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement; by Anthony Robbins. Random House Publishing Group, 1987. ISBN 0449902803
Why You Talk So White? Eliminate the Behaviors that Sabotage Your Success; by Sylvia Henderson. V-Twin Press, 2005. Available through http://www.WhyYouTalkSoWhite.com ISBN 1932197001
See Self help books

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Self help techniques

Contents

History

Criticisms

In Defense of Self-help

See also

Resources

Web books

Web articles

Websites

Books

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