No More Bananas


Book Description

“Feel better, get done more and become a nicer person” In this age of social media, fake news, individualism and information overload, the certainties we relied on in the past are gone. In our quest for assurance and support, the only seemingly dependable pillar left is other people. So we look to them. But they are unsettled too. And by looking to them, we create and perpetuate our own vicious stress-cycle. As a result, we lose our sensible selves. And we go bananas. But there is good news. If we look around us, there are people who withstand the collective lunacy and stay grounded. They do something that most of us have a hard time doing: they stay themselves. And the best news is that what they can do, you can do too. It doesn’t require any special talents or supernatural powers. It only requires doing. In this amiable, open and accessible book, Jeroen Kraaijenbrink takes you on his personal journey out of Bananaland. Drawing from cognitive psychology, martial arts, Saint Benedict, personal experience, and a wide range of other sources, the book offers a nine-step approach with some remarkably practical advice for keeping a cool head in the collective lunacy. “Free yourself from the collective lunacy and reclaim your calm and sensible self”




Your Inner Will


Book Description

"The noted psychotherapist and philosopher uses concise, topical chapters to provide concrete steps to developing internal willpower during periods of deep stress, drawing upon insights from classical mythology and wisdom teachings, psychological traditions, patient case students, and human potential exercises"--




Self-Help, Inc.


Book Description

Why doesn't self-help help? Micki McGee explores the demand for self-help & what it tells us about ourselves.




Freedom from Work


Book Description

“A refreshing and rigorous analysis of financial self-help that gets to the heart of identity formation in neoliberalism . . . sociology at its best.” —Peter Miller, London School of Economics In this era where dollar value signals moral worth, Daniel Fridman paints a vivid portrait of Americans and Argentinians seeking to transform themselves into people worthy of millions. Following groups who practice the advice from financial success bestsellers, Fridman illustrates how the neoliberal emphasis on responsibility, individualism, and entrepreneurship binds people together with the ropes of aspiration. Freedom from Work delves into a world of financial self-help in which books, seminars, and board games reject “get rich quick” formulas and instead suggest to participants that there is something fundamentally wrong with who they are, and that they must struggle to correct it. Fridman analyzes three groups who exercise principles from Rich Dad, Poor Dad by playing the board game Cashflow and investing in cash-generating assets with the goal of leaving the rat race of employment. Fridman shows that the global economic transformations of the last few decades have been accompanied by popular resources that transform the people trying to survive—and even thrive. “A gifted observer, Fridman’s ethnographic account uncovers a unique blend of morality and economics in self-help groups pursuing their dream of financial freedom. This book contributes to economic and cultural sociology but will also fascinate general readers.” —Viviana A. Zelizer, Lloyd Cotsen ’50 Professor of Sociology, Princeton University “A wonderful portrait of how financial technologies of the self work in modern culture.” —Marion Fourcade, University of California, Berkeley




Sham


Book Description

Self-help: To millions of Americans it seems like a godsend. To many others it seems like a joke. But as investigative reporter Steve Salerno reveals in this groundbreaking book, it’s neither—in fact it’s much worse than a joke. Going deep inside the Self-Help and Actualization Movement (fittingly, the words form the acronym SHAM), Salerno offers the first serious exposé of this multibillion-dollar industry and the real damage it is doing—not just to its paying customers, but to all of American society. Based on the author’s extensive reporting—and the inside look at the industry he got while working at a leading “lifestyle” publisher—SHAM shows how thinly credentialed “experts” now dispense advice on everything from mental health to relationships to diet to personal finance to business strategy. Americans spend upward of $8 billion every year on self-help programs and products. And those staggering financial costs are actually the least of our worries. SHAM demonstrates how the self-help movement’s core philosophies have infected virtually every aspect of American life—the home, the workplace, the schools, and more. And Salerno exposes the downside of being uplifted, showing how the “empowering” message that dominates self-help today proves just as damaging as the blame-shifting rhetoric of self-help’s “Recovery” movement. SHAM also reveals: • How self-help gurus conduct extensive market research to reach the same customers over and over—without ever helping them • The inside story on the most notorious gurus—from Dr. Phil to Dr. Laura, from Tony Robbins to John Gray • How your company might be wasting money on motivational speakers, “executive coaches,” and other quick fixes that often hurt quality, productivity, and morale • How the Recovery movement has eradicated notions of personal responsibility by labeling just about anything—from drug abuse to “sex addiction” to shoplifting—a dysfunction or disease • How Americans blindly accept that twelve-step programs offer the only hope of treating addiction, when in fact these programs can do more harm than good • How the self-help movement inspired the disastrous emphasis on self-esteem in our schools • How self-help rhetoric has pushed people away from proven medical treatments by persuading them that they can cure themselves through sheer application of will As Salerno shows, to describe self-help as a waste of time and money vastly understates its collateral damage. And with SHAM, the self-help industry has finally been called to account for the damage it has done. Also available as an eBook




How to Do the Work


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER · INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER From Dr. Nicole LePera, creator of "the holistic psychologist"—the online phenomenon with more than two million Instagram followers—comes a revolutionary approach to healing that harnesses the power of the self to produce lasting change. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Nicole LePera often found herself frustrated by the limitations of traditional psychotherapy. Wanting more for her patients—and for herself—she began a journey to develop a united philosophy of mental, physical and spiritual wellness that equips people with the interdisciplinary tools necessary to heal themselves. After experiencing the life-changing results herself, she began to share what she’d learned with others—and soon “The Holistic Psychologist” was born. Now, Dr. LePera is ready to share her much-requested protocol with the world. In How to Do the Work, she offers both a manifesto for SelfHealing as well as an essential guide to creating a more vibrant, authentic, and joyful life. Drawing on the latest research from a diversity of scientific fields and healing modalities, Dr. LePera helps us recognize how adverse experiences and trauma in childhood live with us, resulting in whole body dysfunction—activating harmful stress responses that keep us stuck engaging in patterns of codependency, emotional immaturity, and trauma bonds. Unless addressed, these self-sabotaging behaviors can quickly become cyclical, leaving people feeling unhappy, unfulfilled, and unwell. In How to Do the Work, Dr. LePera offers readers the support and tools that will allow them to break free from destructive behaviors to reclaim and recreate their lives. Nothing short of a paradigm shift, this is a celebration of empowerment that will forever change the way we approach mental wellness and self-care.




Self-Help That Works


Book Description

Self-help is big business, but alas, not always a scientific one. Self-help books, websites, and movies abound and are important sources of psychological advice for millions of Americans. But how can you sift through them to find the ones that work? Self-Help That Works is an indispensable guide that enables readers to identify effective self-help materials and distinguish them from those that are potentially misleading or even harmful. Six scientist-practitioners bring careful research, expertise, and a dozen national studies to the task of choosing and recommending self-help resources. Designed for both laypersons and mental-health professionals, this book critically reviews multiple types of self-help resources, from books and autobiographies to films, online programs, support groups, and websites, for 41 different behavioral disorders and life challenges. The revised edition of this award-winning book now features online self-help resources, expanded content, and new chapters focusing on autism, bullying, chronic pain, GLB issues, happiness, and nonchemical addictions. Each chapter updates the self-help resources launched since the previous edition and expands the material. The final chapters provide key strategies for consumers evaluating self-help as well as for professionals integrating self-help into treatment. All told, this updated edition of Self-Help that Works evaluates more than 2,000 self-help resources and brings together the collective wisdom of nearly 5,000 mental health professionals. Whether seeking self-help for yourself, loved ones, or patients, this is the go-to, research-based guide with the best advice on what works.




Self Care at Work: How to Reduce Stress, Boost Productivity, and Do More of What Matters


Book Description

Spend more time and energy on what matters, according to you. Self Care at Work bridges the gap between knowledge and action so you can start today. In this practical guide to self-care and productivity, mindfulness teacher and productivity coach, Melissa Steginus, walks you through eight short chapters chock-full of foundational concepts, simple exercises, and transformative questions, designed to help you: - Align your thoughts, practices, and day-to-day schedule with your needs and priorities - Gain skills, tools, and self-awareness for growth and success, according to your terms - Work productively, fulfill your needs, and spend more time doing the stuff that matters With each chapter and exercise, you will both build and practice your personal self-care action plan-your #1 tool for lasting change in your work and life. Whatever your role, schedule, or lifestyle, Self Care at Work will help you invest time and energy back into yourself and transform the way you work and live.It's time to start moving in the direction that's right for you. About the Author Melissa Steginus is a mindfulness teacher and productivity coach helping people structure their work and lives to be intentional, empowering, and fulfilling. With a background in social work and over a decade of experience as a counsellor, coach, yoga instructor, and world traveller, Melissa has helped thousands of people transform their personal and professional lives through her workshops, classes, online courses, and individual sessions. Now living blissfully on the west coast of Canada, Melissa develops and teaches workshops on mindfulness, intentional productivity, and stress reduction for entrepreneurs, clinicians, and students of all ages. You can find out more, and sign up for her newsletter at melissasteginus.com.




Self-Help That Works


Book Description

Previously published under title: Authoritative guide to self-help resources in mental health.




The Self-Help Compulsion


Book Description

Samuel Beckett as a guru for business executives? James Joyce as a guide to living a good life? The notion of notoriously experimental authors sharing a shelf with self-help books might seem far-fetched, yet a hidden history of rivalry, influence, and imitation links these two worlds. In The Self-Help Compulsion, Beth Blum reveals the profound entanglement of modern literature and commercial advice from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Blum explores popular reading practices in which people turn to literature in search of practical advice alongside modern writers’ rebukes of such instrumental purposes. As literary authors positioned themselves in opposition to people like Samuel Smiles and Dale Carnegie, readers turned to self-help for the promises of mobility, agency, and practical use that serious literature was reluctant to supply. Blum unearths a series of unlikely cases of the love-hate relationship between serious fiction and commercial advice, from Gustave Flaubert’s mockery of early DIY culture to Dear Abby’s cutting diagnoses of Nathanael West and from Virginia Woolf’s ambivalent polemics against self-improvement to the ways that contemporary global authors such as Mohsin Hamid and Tash Aw explicitly draw on the self-help genre. She also traces the self-help industry’s tendency to popularize, quote, and adapt literary wisdom and considers what it might have to teach today’s university. Offering a new history of self-help’s origins, appeal, and cultural and literary import around the world, this book reveals that self-help’s most valuable secrets are not about getting rich or winning friends but about how and why people read.