Self-help books have become in the current context of social crisis in one of the most relevant publishing sectors, having an enormous influence on the lives of millions of people who are going through difficult times. However, it is not infrequent that they serve as a vehicle for transmitting the most rancid values of the dominant ideologies, or that they are linked to commercial interests (such as the publications of the “Cocacola Institute of Happiness”). Thus, along with very interesting books, it is common to find titles such as “Conquering the world is easy”. “Manage your life as a company”, “The warriors of the mind”, etc.
Surprisingly, the content, the analysis of the values transmitted by these books, is often very much left out of the social and scientific debate. Of course, it is not that I advocate any type of regulation – freedom is essential, although it must be differentiated from misleading advertising – but I do advocate a critical, even radically critical attitude towards this inexhaustible assortment of self-help offerings in the world. from today
But what are the clearly questionable values that low-quality self-help books convey to millions of readers eager to find solutions to their anxieties and difficulties? At least the following:
1. Denial of social reality: you can already be unemployed, have been evicted from your home, be sick without the right to health care… you always have to smile and feel fully happy. Life is wonderful. Repeat it until you are convinced. As Barbara Ehrenreich points out “smile or die”
2. Self-blame: it is your limitations that prevent you from being happy. The world is full of opportunities within your reach, full of great things that you don’t know how to take advantage of, and we all have the same opportunities. The motto would come to be something like “you are a chump for being so lucky to live, to exist, and on top of that you take things like that”. But here it should be noted that psychoanalysis or cognitivism, to cite two great paradigms of psychology, have also been criticized for excessively focusing attention on the subject’s personal problems, frequently devaluing the influence of external reality. , of the injustices and social inequalities that largely mark people’s lives
3. They promote accommodation to the dominant social model: they convey the idea that things are as they are, “this is what it is”. The subject must make an effort, but always within the system, without questioning it, without changing the rules of the game. The psychology of common sense is abused, which is often very accommodating and serves more for the practical resolution of certain everyday situations than for the general adaptive functioning of the subject.
4. Oversimplification of psychic reality: very simple solutions tend to be proposed both for all types of problems and for all types of people. But it must be taken into account that there is great psychodiversity and that what may be good for one person may not be for another. For example, the relentless recommendation of optimism, a veritable mantra in many self-help books, can clearly be detrimental to already optimistic, action-oriented people who can be induced into reckless behavior.
5. Presentation of books with a marketing type “miracle product”: follow these simple instructions and everything will change. And it must be taken into account that when a very distressed person seeks help and it fails, he sinks even more. That is, the effects may be opposite to those sought
I insist that self-help books constitute a very broad genre in which there are very interesting books, but given their growing social influence, it is important to be critical of those others that are written at the dictation of marketing or that serve as a mere transmission belt. of the dominant ideologies and social values. So, this type of books “rather than lending us a hand, they put their hand on us”!!!!
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