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Sex and the City saved me from a lifetime wasted with self-help books by one wonderful scene of some pathetic lady crying in the self-help section on the floor.

Sex and the City saved me from a lifetime wasted with self-help books by one wonderful scene of some pathetic lady crying in the self-help section on the floor. It made me realize that is pretty much every self-help reader ever. They are never helped, they are just on a hamster wheel to the next self-help book, a little of their wallet moved from their pocket to the author.

trod1234 2y ago
Well this is just categorically wrong. There are some very good works out there that can provide tangible benefit. There are requirements inherent in the audience that are needed to receive benefit. You have to be able to critically discern the misleading propaganda and other crap which many people cannot do, but some people can. The people who are never helped, are the people who can't discern what amounts to lies from truth (without intention). Bad information may work to get a positive result in an authors circumstance, but it may not apply broadly. People are fallible, and its important to recognize words like all, none, never, always, need to be used properly or be discarded as false statements. Information can be valid, while not being sound.
- staticman2 2y ago
  >>The people who are never helped, are the people who can't discern what amounts to lies from truth (without intention). There's so much wrong with this sentence. Like, it apparently never occurred to you some problems can't be treated by medical treatments. Instead, it's the "patient's" fault for picking the wrong book?
  - trod1234 2y ago
    You should read what was actually written, and not hallucinate things that are not actually there.
Der_Einzige 2y ago
This is why I claim stirner is the greatest self help book author ever. “The Unique and its Property”, his magnum opus, is a defense of following your own self interest.
staticman2 2y ago
Do you think the screenwriter of that episode thought to themselves "I have done my research and I will write an episode revealing how the self help industry works?" Or do you think they thought to themselves "This will be funny: we have this wacky character crying in the self help section, it's ironic because with all those books, she should be the person least in need of self help!" I think it's the later. If the episode was saying something that's true, it's merely by accident.
art-not 2y ago
I'm not sure if you'd categorize it as a self help book, but i'd call my reading of man's search for meaning as genuinely lifechanging. I haven't read any other 'self help' book, so i suppose it worked!

trod1234 2y ago

Well this is just categorically wrong. There are some very good works out there that can provide tangible benefit. There are requirements inherent in the audience that are needed to receive benefit. You have to be able to critically discern the misleading propaganda and other crap which many people cannot do, but some people can. The people who are never helped, are the people who can't discern what amounts to lies from truth (without intention). Bad information may work to get a positive result in an authors circumstance, but it may not apply broadly. People are fallible, and its important to recognize words like all, none, never, always, need to be used properly or be discarded as false statements. Information can be valid, while not being sound.

staticman2 2y ago
>>The people who are never helped, are the people who can't discern what amounts to lies from truth (without intention). There's so much wrong with this sentence. Like, it apparently never occurred to you some problems can't be treated by medical treatments. Instead, it's the "patient's" fault for picking the wrong book?
- trod1234 2y ago
  You should read what was actually written, and not hallucinate things that are not actually there.

Der_Einzige 2y ago

This is why I claim stirner is the greatest self help book author ever. “The Unique and its Property”, his magnum opus, is a defense of following your own self interest.

staticman2 2y ago

Do you think the screenwriter of that episode thought to themselves "I have done my research and I will write an episode revealing how the self help industry works?" Or do you think they thought to themselves "This will be funny: we have this wacky character crying in the self help section, it's ironic because with all those books, she should be the person least in need of self help!" I think it's the later. If the episode was saying something that's true, it's merely by accident.

art-not 2y ago

I'm not sure if you'd categorize it as a self help book, but i'd call my reading of man's search for meaning as genuinely lifechanging. I haven't read any other 'self help' book, so i suppose it worked!