By Steve Salerno.
The book has a very good point, and much bombast. Take the title its self "How the Self help movement made America helpless' Well… America is far from helpless.
A large part of the book cover the business behind the self help movement-- Dr. Phil, Men are from mars… Deepak Chopra.. and so on. These are people more interested in selling you something then in helping. Often the only think you get out of their message are over simplified feel good platitudes that have little or no real benefit. Maybe you think they work because the problem cured its self with time. Maybe it's a placebo.
The book also has problems with support groups such as AA. Support groups a great if they actually help you deal with your problem. Sometimes they encourage you to cope, or to cheat or to just accept that you are the kind of person who has a problem. All of which just delays action and defers responsibility. That is dangerous
The book also discusses the problems with the self esteem movement. Poorly done encouraging esteem is just a way of lowering standards and not talking about it.
Maybe the reason people succeed after they "get self confidence" is that they allowed them self to practice a few times. It was the practice that brought the success. The lack of self esteem was just an excuse to not learn.
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