Self-help
Self-help is the practice of individuals actively striving to enhance various aspects of their lives, driven by a desire for personal improvement. This pursuit often involves gathering information through diverse resources such as books, articles, workshops, and community groups focused on shared goals. Common issues addressed through self-help initiatives include weight loss, addiction recovery, financial management, and mental health challenges like depression. The tradition of self-help has deep historical roots, tracing back to ancient writings and evolving significantly with the advent of the printing press, which made self-help literature more accessible. In contemporary society, self-help has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar industry, with a significant focus on positive thinking and structured plans for achieving self-improvement. Although a large portion of the self-help audience consists of middle-aged women, individuals from various demographics engage in these resources. While the effectiveness of self-help may be debated, many find value in the supportive community aspects and the sense of empowerment that comes from self-initiated efforts. Ultimately, the journey of self-help emphasizes personal agency and the belief that one's commitment to betterment can lead to meaningful change.
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Subject Terms
Self-help
Self-help refers to the practice of guiding one's own efforts to improve some aspect of life. Those seeking to help themselves often gather information by reading books, magazines, Internet articles, or other materials; attending conferences and workshops; or by joining groups with individuals seeking the same improvements. Attending conferences, classes, or group meetings is still generally considered self-help because the person is self-initiating and self-directing the efforts to improve. Some problems for which people engage in self-help include weight loss and fitness, addiction, financial issues, depression or mood disorders, household or personal organization, and childcare.
Background
People have been offering written materials intended to help others for nearly as long as humans have had written language. Ancient Egyptians wrote a form of literature called Sebayt, or "teaching," at least as far back as 2800 BC. Much of the Bible, particularly the Old Testament Book of Proverbs and the New Testament Gospels, contain advice intended to help people guide their lives in a better direction. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, stories were told with morals that were aimed at helping people live better lives.
The invention of the printing press in 1455 meant that self-help materials could reach a wider audience; this in turn increased both demand and output. In the centuries that followed, self-help and how-to books grew in popularity. By the 1800s, as psychology and the workings of the mind became widely discussed, the public increasingly looked for books on ways to improve their moods, increase self-control, overcome grief, and enhance other aspects of their mental well-being. Books on weight loss and self-treatments for illnesses were also popular, as were texts that dealt with issues such as homemaking and hostessing, marriage, and raising children.
The nineteenth century is generally considered the timeframe when the English-language self-help book was born. Titles such as The Constitution of Man (1828) by George Combe and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Compensation (1841) were considered to be the first self-help books. It was soon the case that there was no area in which an individual wanted to improve for which a book or periodical article could not be found.
This trend continued into the twentieth century. Books such as Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) and Dr. Benjamin Spock's Baby and Child Care (1946), as well as other self-improvement books, became part of many household libraries. In the 1960s and 1970s, self-help increasingly trended toward efforts to recover from various problems and addictions, ranging from alcohol and drugs to financial issues and overspending to issues with parents and children. Many magazines were filled with pages of stories about the same topics as well.
Another change at this time was the increasing use of a new medium for self-help: television. Programming began that included information on cooking and other household topics and provided an increasing focus on dealing with issues such as depression, stress, bad or abusive relationships, coping with difficult people, and getting and staying out of debt. Infomercials—commercials that are a half an hour or more in length and contain information about a single product or product line—became popular as well. Weight loss products and programs, exercise equipment, and products aimed at saving time and effort in the kitchen and around the house became popular.
In many ways, these programs were a reflection of the issues found in society at the time. When the economy is good, there tends to be more articles, books, and programs dedicated to finding and decorating bigger homes, investing money, and planning for the future. When the economy is weak, the articles tend to focus on saving money and topics such as healthy eating on a budget, self-treating medical problems, stress reduction, get-rich-quick business ventures, and redecorating existing homes. When the Internet became widely available, it too filled with articles, sites, and blogs about how to improve in virtually any area a person might desire.
In the twenty-first century, self-help is a multibillion-dollar industry and self-help books make up one of the largest category of books sold. According to a Marketdata Enterprises study for the period 1996 to 2010 that was released in May of 2015, about $9.6 billion was spent on self-help books, products, and services. Weight loss programs and personal coaching represented the two largest categories of spending, according to the study. In 2024, the self-improvement/self-help market was valued at $45.7 billion globally. Americans alone are reported to spend $800 million annually on self-help.
Overview
What all the self-help books, television infomercials, and Internet sites have in common is they are driven by an individual's desire to improve physically, emotionally, financially, intellectually, or in some other way. The individual may join with other like-minded people for the benefits of mutual support and encouragement, friendship, shared experiences, and the comfort of knowing others are going through similar situations. Many of these programs, books, and other sources of self-help focus on positive thinking and provide a set of steps to achieve self-improvement goals.
Researchers have determined that while anyone of nearly any age can be interested in self-help materials, about 70 percent of them are middle-aged women. People who purchase self-help materials are likely to purchase more, the researchers have found, leading some to question the validity of self-help in achieving results.
Some researchers have attributed at least some of the reported positive outcomes of self-help efforts to the placebo effect. In some studies, subjects who were told to listen to a subliminal message recording—one where the message is not audible but is hidden under music or other sounds—reported an improvement in their condition even when the recording's message was not related to the issue they sought to improve. It is thought that in some cases, merely thinking one wants to be happier or feel better in some other way can help to improve the condition. In some cases, researchers theorize, simply taking self-help steps to improve the situation can provide a feeling of control and lead to the person feeling better about himself or herself. This does not diminish the effects of self-help: if a person believes he or she has been helped by any treatment, regardless of how legitimate that treatment may seem, the goal of self-help has been accomplished.
Bibliography
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Everly Jr., George. "Americans Spend $800 Million on Self-Help Every Year. Why Doesn't It Work?" Baltimore Sun, 8 Oct. 2024, www.baltimoresun.com/2024/10/08/americans-spend-800-million-on-self-help-every-year-why-doesnt-it-work-guest-commentary/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
Gilbert, Matthew. "Self-Help Books and the Promise of Change." Boston Globe, 14 Jan. 2014, www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/01/14/self-help-books-and-promise-change/4nJqRBpinOSWQ4wU536jPP/story.html. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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"Self-Help Therapies." National Health Service, www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/Self-help-therapies.aspx. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.