In a piece onAeon Magazine, psychologist Rami Gabriel assesses the value of self-help literature. Gabriel talks about the immense power these books often attribute to our own minds over the physical world—usually ignoring social, political, economic, and historical factors. Do these books rely on a sort of magical thinking about the control we have over our lives? Do they feed into an idiosyncratic, American narcissism that prioritizes furthering our pursuits over helping others? Are they even worth reading in the first place?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Gabriel comes down heavily against self-help books. While I don't really disagree with anything in his article, I do think he leaves out a few points I would make in favor of self-help. Let me put my cards on the table; I too have first-hand experience with these books. I actually got interested in philosophy after reading Eckhart Tolle'sThe Power of Now这本书在加布里埃尔的文章中提到过。

我想说两点:首先，关于我们对自己的思想和情绪有多大程度的控制，这些文献中似乎确实有一些有趣的、实质性的结论。从本质上说，这是冥想的延伸，我还没有听说心理学家对这种做法有太多的蔑视。虽然我不知道在冥想的优点上是否有心理学上的共识，但我不认为调整某些习惯来调节思想和感觉是值得的是荒谬的。

Second, while Gabriel mentions tentatively the importance of self-help books providing people hope in their lives, he relegates most of the benefits there to a kind of placebo effect. I think this short-sells the positive role self-help (and religion, which he also tacitly targets) can play in providing people hope for improving their lives. I personally don't rely on self-help (nor religion) to feel confident about my life. And while I do think superstitious or magical thinking can be toxic, something has to give people hope in their lives. If a little superstition is what it takes for some people, then maybe—if we're thinking about whether we want this to exist in our society—maybe it's worth it.

Here's the full article:

https://aeon.co/essays/self-help-is-a-kind-of-magical-thinking-thats-why...