Self-help

From Wikinfo

Though the term self-help can refer to any case whereby an individual or a group betters themselves economically, intellectually or emotionally, the connotations of the phrase have come to apply particularly to psychological or psychotherapeutic nostrums, often purveyed through the popular genre of the "self-help" book. Sometimes writers refer to a "self-help movement", though exactly what this is taken to be is not clear.

Group and corporate aid for the "seeker" has also moved into the "self-help" marketplace, with LGATs and therapy systems ready with more or less pre-packaged solutions to instruct folk seeking their own individual betterment.

Compare:

• Landmark Education
• Dianetics
• Silva Mind Control

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. In the views of one parodist of the self-help movement, "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one." (1)

Self-help, in law and the anthropology of law, refers to legal remedies that can be initiated by the aggrieved person alone without filing a lawsuit or obtaining an order from a judge. The creditor who sends out a "repo man" to repossess a vehicle driven by a defaulting debtor has used a self-help remedy in enforcing his lien.

While some measure of self-help is inevitable and necessary, by definition self-help remedies are available without a great deal of due process, and the current tendency of the law is to discourage their use.

Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 External links 4 References 4.1 References

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", which is often quoted but rarely referenced. The author was of a progressive political bent.

See also

• Personal development
• Personal transformation
• Humanistic psychology
• Human Potential Movement
• List of self-help authors
• List of self-help organizations
• Qi, Qigong

External links

• Project Gutenberg edition of "Self-Help" (1859).

References

1 - Christopher Buckley, God is My Broker, Perennial Press, 1999

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Self-help" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-help, used under the GNU Free Documentation License