Will self-help books help you become happier?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Self-help books may not be reputable, but some are said to be more effective than psychotherapy or meditation. So can self-help books become a real cure for life's problems?

People turn to books on self-development when they understand that they need changes in their lives that are impossible without personal growth. But most of them come across such works by accident. For example, once they see a book by Dale Carnegie or another popular psychologist on the shelf, they read a couple of paragraphs. And get hooked.

Elizabeth Svoboda, journalist and author of What makes a hero ?, describes her exposure to Morgan Scott Peck's book The Unbeaten Road: unpopularity among guys, "I was intrigued by this Connecticut psychiatrist's assertion that suffering can be noble and even necessary until you muster the strength to face your problems face to face."

When we avoid the logical suffering that results from facing challenges, we also avoid the growth we need to address those challenges. Morgan Scott Peck American psychiatrist, publicist

Some find solace in the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke or the Bible, and others in the books of Peck, who believed that self-discipline was the path to growth and happiness.

In the USA, the book "The Return of Ophelia" was very popular among teenage girls. Its author, psychologist Mary Pipher, tried to convey to readers the idea that every - without exception - a girl should value herself and that appearance does not have a defining meaning for her whole life.

What do the books of Peck and Pifer have in common? They make you feel that everyone can find their own path to happiness.

Research confirms that self-help books can relieve a reader of depressed moods and change ingrained ways of thinking. For many patients, so-called book therapy works just as well as psychotherapy or drugs like Prozac.

In an ideal world, according to psychologist John Norcross of the University of Scranton, self-help books would be prescribed early in the course of psychotherapy. Medication and other intensive care methods would remain a last resort reserved for more serious cases.

Patients with psychoses, suicides, critical cases should be referred directly to professionals. But why don't most people start with a book?

John Norcross psychologist

History of the genre

In all cultures, there have been and still are books with advice on how to live a more moral and fulfilling life.

For example, the ancient Indian Upanishads emphasize the need to treat others with tolerance and respect. "For one who lives generously," says one of the provisions of the book, "the whole world is one family."

Jewish thinkers, who wrote the Old Testament in the 7th century BC, advised to choose the path of limiting pleasures and strict observance of God's commandments.

Or recall the widely circulated treatise On Duties by Marcus Tullius Cicero, which the Roman politician wrote in the form of a letter to his son. Cicero advises the young Mark to focus on fulfilling the obligations given to others, even if he has to sacrifice a lot, and warns him to stay away from momentary pleasures.

A person who considers pain to be the highest evil, of course, cannot be brave, and a person who recognizes pleasure as the highest good is abstinent. Mark Tullius Cicero ancient Roman politician, orator and philosopher

But such books for self-development, as we know them today, appear by the middle of the 20th century. And the most popular of them is, of course, "" Dale Carnegie. The thriving Western economy has raised a generation of adventurers who are obsessed with making the most of and flaunting their talents. And a sea of self-development books marked this transition.

Personal influence and self-knowledge are suddenly in high demand, so new books have emerged that promise an easy way to achieve change.

Some of them were based on a conscious change in habitual patterns of thought. In the 1950s, Norman Vincent Peale topped the bestseller lists, promising that when you change your inner monologue, your quality of life will improve.

Think positively and you will set in motion the forces that will help you achieve positive results. Norman Vincent Peel writer, theologian, priest, creator of the theory of positive thinking

Medicine or deception?

Modern self-development books can be divided into two categories. The first group contains books based on scientific research. Gone are the time for unrestricted books like How to Win Friends and Influence People or The Unbeaten Road, which mostly reflected the personal views of the authors, rather than specific scientific theories. They were replaced by others, such as David Burns (1980), Martin Seligman (1991) and Carol Dweck (2006). In each of these books, the authors cited one scientific study after another as examples to back up their recommendations for behavior change.

Many modern popular science books also announce a self-help idea. Malcolm Gladwell's book "" (2013) presents research that explains how people can turn their weaknesses (dyslexia, childhood trauma) into strengths.

Nevertheless, along with books with a scientific basis, there are those that sell unsubstantiated and sometimes even crazy recommendations. In her bestselling book (2006), writer Rhonda Byrne argues that our thoughts send vibrations into the universe, and therefore can affect our lives. Good thoughts, this theory says, lead to good results, while bad thoughts create trouble.

Of course, such “sellers of happiness” cannot be trusted, and the popularity of a book does not guarantee that it will help you change.

In 1999, an interesting study was conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles. Students who imagined high scores before testing spent less time preparing and scored fewer points than those who did not engage in self-hypnosis.

And in 2009, University of Waterloo psychologist Joanne Wood found that people with low self-esteem began to feel even worse after they began to pointlessly repeat positive judgments about themselves. Thus, the power of positive thinking that is imposed in books like The Secret is in fact just a mirage.

Book therapy is a remedy for depression

Several recent studies point to the great potential of book therapy as it can help bring positive change to life. Of course, if the book is based on proven principles.

People with depression felt better while reading Wellness: A New Mood Therapy, according to a University of Nevada study. Participants in the book therapy group experienced more significant improvements in mood than those who received “routine care,” including prescriptions for antidepressants.

Psychologist John Norcross advocates the idea that the right self-help books can help some patients better than antidepressants or other psychoactive medications, with no side effects like dulling emotions, insomnia, and sexual dysfunction.

Antidepressants are prescribed too often. This is especially true for mild disorders that we know are treatable with book therapy. We support book therapy. This is how you start with the least expensive but most readily available materials.

John Norcross psychologist

Norcross has developed a way to measure the effectiveness of self-development books. He studied a group of over 2,500 psychologists and asked them to rate the effectiveness of the books their patients read. Feelings were at the top of the list with an average of 1.51 on a scale of -2 (worst book) to 2 (best book). Individual autobiographies, including "" (1990) by William Styron (William Styron) and "" (1995) by Kay Jamison (Kay Jamison), scored almost the same. Perhaps because they not only offer specific coping strategies, but also help the person with mood disorders understand that they are not alone.

What conclusion can be drawn from this? Readers need to be more careful when choosing books for self-development. Books must deliver on their promises. By the way, Norcross did not find a direct relationship between the popularity of a book and its effectiveness, so do not judge superficially, relying only on sales and "star" advertising.

Book therapy is most likely best done under the supervision of an experienced physician - one who can help the reader evaluate how good a particular technique is and give advice on how to apply the recommendations in the book in practice, or prescribe more serious treatment, if necessary.

We are all trying to find our own path to human happiness. Literature, on the other hand, should guide us, which is why we should trust only proven advice. As Franz Kafka wrote, "the book should be an ax that can cut through the frozen sea within us." Literature must be able to awaken something extraordinary in us.