Do you read self-help books? Are they moraly right?

SparkyTech

Personaly I think everythings good in moderation, but walking into Easons and looking at the self help section its a bit worrying how many people buy into the psychology ''live your best life'' retoric.

By all means, its good to step back and re-evaluate your life from time to time, take a little bit of positive optimisim Dr Phil and boogie down with Oprah, but at what point does the 'reach for the stars' mindset turn into false hope and expliotation of the people who buy these books/seminars/dvd collections on how to live your best life?

Killer Pigeon

SparkyTech wrote: »

Personaly I think everythings good in moderation, but walking into Easons and looking at the self help section its a bit worrying how many people buy into the psychology ''live your best life'' retoric.

By all means, its good to step back and re-evaluate your life from time to time, take a little bit of positive optimisim Dr Phil and boogie down with Oprah, but at what point does the 'reach for the stars' mindset turn into false hope and expliotation of the people who buy these books/seminars/dvd collections on how to live your best life?

What do you mean by "morally right"?

chin_grin

If you're reading self help from the likes of Dr Phil and Oprah then they're not going to help. At all.

You can read biographies and take what you want from them. Life is all about the mental a la carte anyways.

I'd recommend reading this though.

prinz

Depends on the book surely. Some books are just plain rubbish. Others have good points to make you reflect on things.

karma_

Morally, they are just a step below Hitler on the ladder of evil. Trees actually had to die to print that rubbish.

Ghost Buster

If self help books work why is there more than one?

SparkyTech

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

What do you mean by "morally right"?

Some people in society are vunerable. IE Have serious mental health probelms and can be exploited by buying this stuff/paying to attend seminars when what they really need is to see a professional GP/Pysch. for ongoing proper help and meds if need be.

orourkeda

This is Ireland.

Self help and positive thinking doesn't fit in with our begrudgery, negativity and backstabbing way of life.

SparkyTech

orourkeda wrote: »

This is Ireland.

Self help and positive thinking doesn't fit in with our begrudgery, negativity and backstabbing way of life.

Ya got that right!

pragmatic1

They're a load of shyte written by bluffers to con vulnerable people.

Archeron

"Getting over your self help book addiction" was the best one yet. Only 201 easy steps to get past needing these things to live my life to the full.

Cant wait for the second edition too. And the third.

Naikon

Self Help books are a scam.

Misty Chaos

I went through a phase when I was younger of being into self-help. A few years ago, I threw all but one of them ( Tuesdays with Morrie, the only one that was actually any good imo ) out.

I agree its a scam myself, the whole ' Secret ' thing from a few years back didn't fool me then so I don't believe I can be fooled again.

Not to say I didn't get anything out of them its just insignifficant compared to the bigger picture.

scum01

I've read a few of those books - "think and grow rich", "how to win friends and influence people" and a couple others.

To be honest I dont really see any harm in them. The point of any self help book/motivation book is to try to inspire you to do a little bit better in your life.

You've only got a problem when people start following the methods and rules in these books blindly! We all know what happened when people started doing that with the Bible!

Duggy747

Self-help guide by Duggy

Page 1

Stop being a bitch and man up!

Page 2

Hope you found this book helpful.

---

My GF had bought one of those Dr.Phil books, said it made her feel worse about herself :pac:

Naikon

Duggy747 wrote: »

Self-help guide by Duggy

Page 1

Stop being a bitch and man up!

Page 2

Hope you found this book helpful.

---

My GF had bought one of those Dr.Phil books, said it made her feel worse about herself :pac:

Don't forget the copyright! It's orginal, I tells ya.

Badgermonkey

What's not to like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRcuDz1ZZhw

NothingMan

I read The Secret a few years ago and it completely changed my life. I use to be really distructive. I was a little lazy throughout college and work and some days I'd do nothing but sit on here all day and get feck all work done. Outside of work I would go on weekend long benders, going to house parties and night clubs sometimes drinking more than 10 pints in a night. I even dabbled in a some drugs like weed. It was a real crazy life, then I read the secret.


I still do all those things but now I have a paper weight so my sheets don't blow off my desk when my colleague opens the window.

Odysseus

SparkyTech wrote: »

Personaly I think everythings good in moderation, but walking into Easons and looking at the self help section its a bit worrying how many people buy into the psychology ''live your best life'' retoric.

By all means, its good to step back and re-evaluate your life from time to time, take a little bit of positive optimisim Dr Phil and boogie down with Oprah, but at what point does the 'reach for the stars' mindset turn into false hope and expliotation of the people who buy these books/seminars/dvd collections on how to live your best life?

My own view point would be that a lot [not all] of these pop psychology self-help books cause more problems than they solve. They often offer simple solutions to complex problems, people mis-read what they have read, thinking they have issues that they don't, or think that there is something wrong with themselves when there isn't.

These books may be of help with minor issues, but they thing is people with more complex issues can see them as offering a quick fix to their problem. If I had my way they wouldn't be sold. If you need therapy see a psychotherapist, and work through whatever it is that needs to be done. A self-help book is no replacement for therapy.

r3nu4l

scum01 wrote: »

I've read a few of those books - "think and grow rich", "how to win friends and influence people" and a couple others.

To be honest I dont really see any harm in them. The point of any self help book/motivation book is to try to inspire you to do a little bit better in your life.

You've only got a problem when people start following the methods and rules in these books blindly! We all know what happened when people started doing that with the Bible!

Exactly, in fact the two you have mentioned are probably the most famous (and amongst the best) of this class of books.

Self-help/personal development books are like any other genre of books, there are some really, really excellent ones and then there's complete drivel.

I agree that people who religiously hand-over money to go on these courses every year or buy everything produced by the personal development gurus simply aren't doing it right, they are doing exactly what these gurus say NOT to do. They are relying on someone else to change their lives when change really does come from within. It may be spurred on by some external stimulus but to really change you have to want to change. That's all it boils down to.

chillywilly

Misty Chaos wrote: »

I went through a phase when I was younger of being into self-help. A few years ago, I threw all but one of them ( Tuesdays with Morrie, the only one that was actually any good imo ) out.

I agree its a scam myself, the whole ' Secret ' thing from a few years back didn't fool me then so I don't believe I can be fooled again.

Not to say I didn't get anything out of them its just insignifficant compared to the bigger picture.

I watched "The Secret" myself and it is very "American" and cheesy. The way they market it as if it was the Da Vinchi Code etc. I don't believe in their whole being pulled towards things etc but I do believe in its basic meaning: If you have a picture of what you want in your head and you keep thinking of it then you will achieve it. Not by some sort of magic but by constantly thinking of it and realising your goals will lead to eventual success whatever it may be.

IMO a lot of people in Ireland don't get the concept of positive thinking and it's ability to have a very positive impact in ones life.

Simply: If you nag, complain and be negative then nothing good is going to become of you. The more negative you are the more negative things happen to you.

The more positive you are the more positive things will happen to you.

One thing I like about The Secret is the "vision board", its basically a board you put up with pictures of things you would like to own, do or achieve. You then see it every day and so these things are constantly on your mind so you then act on pursuing these things you want.

Dudess

A lot of them make good points - basic stuff like positive thinking - but dressed up in a way that makes them seem really groundbreaking.

Hookah

A lot of stuff in the Secret is guff, such as the observer created reality, which is a misinterpretation of the Copenhagen Interpretation in quantum physics, not to say that there isn't an observer created reality in terms of positive or negative thinking.

So these books need to be approached with caution.

I came across this one recently, which looks interesting.

Kidchameleon

I read The Secret. Its a good read. Now lets say that everything in it is b.s., it would be still better to live your life the way it recommends. For example, I was always very negative, thinking bad thoughts, worrying etc... After reading the book, I can still get on with my life but I'm able to ignore all the bad thoughts, in fact, they don't really manifest much nowadays. I have a better life after reading that book...

landsleaving

Dianetics is where it's at.