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[[Image:RecoveryInternational.jpg|thumb|250px| [[Recovery International]] is a mental health self-help organization founded in 1937 by neuropsychiatrist [[Abraham Low]] in Chicago, Illinois. ]]
[[Image:RecoveryInternational.jpg|thumb|250px| [[Recovery International]] is a mental health self-help organization founded in 1937 by neuropsychiatrist [[Abraham Low]] in Chicago, Illinois. ]]


'''Self-help''', or '''self-improvement''', SUCER MON PÉNIS
'''Self-help''', or '''self-improvement''', SUCER MON PÉNIS JS suce

improvement<ref name="APA">''APA Dictionary of Psychology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.</ref>—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial [[psychology|psychological]] basis. There are many different self-help movements and each one has its own unique focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases leaders.
improvement<ref name="APA">''APA Dictionary of Psychology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.</ref>—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial [[psychology|psychological]] basis. There are many different self-help movements and each one has its own unique focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases leaders.


Revision as of 12:43, 25 March 2010

For other uses, see Self-help (disambiguation).
Look up self-help in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
File:RecoveryInternational.jpg
Recovery International is a mental health self-help organization founded in 1937 by neuropsychiatrist Abraham Low in Chicago, Illinois.

Self-help, or self-improvement, SUCER MON PÉNIS JS suce 

improvement[1]—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each one has its own unique focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases leaders.

Self-help often takes place on the basis of publicly available information or of support groups where people in similar situations join together.[1] From early exemplars in self-driven legal practice[2] and home-spun advice, the connotations of the phrase have spread and often apply particularly to education, business, psychological or psychotherapeutic nostrums, purveyed through the popular genre of self-help books. According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, potential benefits of self-help groups that professionals may not be able to provide include friendship, emotional support, experiential knowledge, identity, meaningful roles, and a sense of belonging.[1]

Groups associated with health conditions may consist of patients and/or their care givers. As well as featuring long-time members sharing experiences, these health groups can become lobby groups and clearing-houses for educational material. Those who help themselves by learning about health problems do exemplify self-help, while one might better regard such groups as peer-to-peer support.

History

The authors of the 1994 book First Things First invoke wisdom literature dating back as far as 2500 B.C. as a validation of their particular enumeration of fundamental human needs[3]. Within classical antiquity, some [who?] have seen the advice poetry of Hesiod, particularly his Works and Days, as an early adaptation of Near Eastern wisdom literature. The Stoics offered advice with a psychological flavor.[citation needed] The genre of mirror-of-princes writings, which has a long history in Islamic and Western Renaissance literature, represents a secular cognate of Biblical wisdom literature. Proverbs from many periods, collected and uncollected, embody traditional moral and practical advice of diverse cultures.

The actual phrase "self-help" often appeared relatively early on in a legal context, referring to the doctrine that a party in a dispute has the right to use lawful means on their own initiative to remedy a wrong.[4]

Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) published the first self-consciously personal-development "self-help" book — entitled Self-Help — in 1859. Its opening sentence: "Heaven helps those who help themselves", provides a variation of "God helps them that help themselves", the oft-quoted maxim that also appeared previously in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac (1733 - 1758).

Some commentators[who?] suggest that Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) began the self-help movement in the 20th century when he published How to Win Friends and Influence People in 1936. Having failed in several careers, Carnegie became fascinated with success and its link to self-confidence, and studied the subject for years. Carnegie's books have since sold over 50 million copies.[5]

In 1902 James Allen published As a Man Thinketh, which proceeds from the conviction that "a man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts." Noble thoughts, the book maintains, make for a noble person, whilst lowly thoughts make for a miserable person.

Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (1937) described the use of repeated positive thoughts to attract happiness and wealth by tapping into an "Infinite Intelligence".[6]

Dr Neville Yeomans, an Australian Psychiatrist, Clinical Sociologist, Psychologist and Barrister pioneered Self-Help and Mutual Help in Australia through his pioneering work at Australia's first therapeutic community Fraser House (1959-1968), an 80 bed residential unit in North Ryde Sydney. Former inmates of this unit started many self-help groups around Sydney. Neville's life work is detailed in Dr Les Spencer's PhD dissertation:Cultural Keyline - The life work of Dr Neville Yeomans - Internet Source <http://www.laceweb.org.au/ck/ck.htm>

Self-help and mutual-help are very different to, though may complement service delivery by professionals. A detailed paper on this difference may be found at internet source <http://www.laceweb.org.au/int.htm>. This paper explores interfacing local self-help and International Aid's service delivery model. The paper provides a rich resource on self help processes.

The self-help marketplace

Research firm Marketdata estimated the "self-improvement" market in the U.S. as worth more than $9 billion in 2006 — including infomercials, mail-order catalogs, holistic institutes, books, audio cassettes, motivation-speaker seminars, the personal coaching market, weight-loss and stress-management programs. Marketdata projected that the total market size would grow to over $11 billion by 2008.[7]

Within the context of this larger market, group and corporate attempts to aid the "seeker" have moved into the "self-help" marketplace, with LGATs[8] and psychotherapy systems represented. These offer more-or-less prepackaged solutions to instruct people seeking their own individual betterment.[citation needed]

A sub-genre of self-help book series also exists: such as the for Dummies guides and the The Complete Idiot's Guide to....

The self-help movement

Self-help behavior can be seen as something as natural and as ubiquitous as breathing. The term may be too general to be defined, or criticized, as a single entity.

Scholars have targeted self-help claims as misleading and incorrect. In 2005, Steve Salerno portrayed the American self-help movement -- he uses the acronym SHAM: the Self-Help and Actualization Movement -- not only as ineffective in achieving its goals, but also as socially harmful.[2] Christopher Buckley in his book God is My Broker asserts: "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one."[9]

The self-help world has become the target of parodies. Walker Percy's Lost in the Cosmos[10] offers a book-length parody. In their 2006 book Secrets of The Superoptimist, authors W.R. Morton and Nathanel Whitten revealed the concept of "superoptimism" as a humorous antidote to the overblown self-help book category. In his comedy special Complaints and Grievances, George Carlin observes that there is "no such thing" as self-help: anyone looking for help from someone else doesn't technically get "self" help; and one who accomplishes something without help, didn't need help to begin with.[11]

See also

For articles on individual:

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c APA Dictionary of Psychology, 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Steve Salerno (2005) Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, ISBN 1-4000-5409-5 p.24-25
  3. ^ Covey, Stephen R., Merrill, A. Roger, and Merrill, Rebecca R., First Things First: to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy. New York: Simon and Schuster (1994)
  4. ^ The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1989) traces legal usage back to at least 1875; whereas it detects "self-help" as a moral virtue as early as 1831 in Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.
  5. ^ O'Neil, William J. (2003). Business Leaders & Success: 55 Top Business Leaders & How They Achieved Greatness. McGraw-Hill Professional. pp. 35-36. ISBN 0071426809
  6. ^ Starker, Steven (2002). Oracle at the Supermarket: The American Preoccupation With Self-Help Books. Transaction Publishers. p. 62. ISBN 0765809648
  7. ^ "Self-Improvement Market in U.S. Worth $9.6 Billion" (Press release). PRWeb. September 21, 2006. Retrieved 2008-12-18. Marketdata Enterprises, Inc., a leading independent market research publisher, has released a new 321-page market study entitled: The U.S. Market For Self-Improvement Products & Services.
  8. ^ Coon, Dennis (2004). Psychology: A Journey. Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 520, 528, 538. ISBN 0534632645. ... programs that claim to increase self-awareness and facilitate constructive personal change. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ Amazon.com editorial review of God Is My Broker
  10. ^ Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-Help Book. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1983.
  11. ^ Carlin, George (2001-11-17). Complaints and Grievances (DVD). Atlantic Records.
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