Articles such as these are very strange to me. There always is some unspoken nebulous assumptions which the author doesn't even bother to justify. What is the "

Articles such as these are very strange to me. There always is some unspoken nebulous assumptions which the author doesn't even bother to justify. What is the "better" that the author is referring to? She seems to think that it is better to be a person who could survive living in a Nazi prison camp than someone who could not. But what are you giving up to gain this ability? And why is it so important? Listing out a recipe for how to become a "better" person is also a strange way of trying to help somebody. I mean, doesn't the idea of becoming a better person appeal the old base instincts of greed and fear? Greed of having the ability to appear confident, strong and satisfied, thereby the social status ladder, and fear of falling behind. By following her advice from such a viewpoint, you might be allowing yourself to be ever more aligned to instincts that drive people to despair.. ever chasing the carrot just out of reach. Of course, it's just my interpretation. The author may never have intended to appeal to such base emotions, and is simply trying to help you achieve a higher plane of thought by example. And the book she pushes may truly be full of insight to guide you to the next step in your path to enlightenment and fulfillment. All these self-help guru's all do seem to follow the same pattern though, it's always some sort of plan to appeal to your basic instinct to be better than the people around you. If they were truly altruistic, then why is it always a solution to your problem their peddling, and there is usually some next step tied to giving someone somewhere money? I think they are often doing a disservice to people who take this stuff too seriously. By constantly bombarding you with the assumption that you're broken and they have the fix, they leave you feeling not to bright, helpless and insecure, when in fact if you just trust in yourself, you'll get over it. But telling people to do that doesn't sell.