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THE MARKETING OF PUBLIC ISSUES AS PRIVATE TROUBLES:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF SELF-HELP
BOOKS IN IVDDERN AMERICAN SOCIETY

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© 1979

MARY J EAN MCCORMAC K

ALLRIGH'I'S RESERVED

THE MARKETING OF PUBLIC ISSUES AS PRIVATE TROUBLES:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF SELF-HELP
BOOKS IN MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY

By

Mary J. McCormack

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
fer the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Sociology

1979

ABSTRACT

THE MARKETING OF PUBLIC ISSUES AS PRIVATE TROUBLES:
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF SELF-HELP
BOOKS IN MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY

By

Mary J. McCormack

Recent critiques of the self-help industry have argued two
different theses. One is that self-help books lead to self-
absorption instead of social change; the other that self-help
books reify personality to the point of its own negation. Analyzing
the themes of ten self-help books, I attempt to discover which
thesis most closely approximates what the books themselves say.

The books define that: (1) individual personality exists over

and above the social order; (2) individual change must occur before
social change; and (3) individual change occurs through the
utilization of some technique of self-help. I conclude that both
of the above stated processes are operating, and that society
escapes critique because people read books which tell them that

they cause their own problems.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A number of people have contributed to the various stages
which this thesis is the product of. The members of the writing
staff of James Madison College have been particularly encouraging
and supportive of my work. It is largely due to the influence of
Ron Dorr that I was able to come to an understanding that the
communication of ideas depends on the ability to make those ideas
come alive through good writing. Claire Kohrman has read and
commented on several drafts of this manuscript and provided insight-
ful criticisms and timely support. I owe a large debt to Richard
Evans who showed me a new way of looking at self-help books, and
who discussed many of the ideas that appear in the final version
of this thesis.

My committee members, Barrie Thorne and Marilyn Aronoff,
have both been able to add clarity to my ideas. Their criticisms
and comments have been very helpful in refining the theoretical
aspects of the thesis. Chris Vanderpool, who served as the advisor
to this project, has contributed a number of suggestions and ideas
to my work. As an advisor, he encouraged me to write on self-help
books as a cultural phenomenon and provided almost immediate
reactions to each chapter as it was written.

I am most grateful to Ginny Powell, who not only typed the
original manuscript, but who also shared the everyday reality of the
thinking and writing of this thesis.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .

PREFACE

Chapter
I.
II.

III.

IV.

INTRODUCTION

MODERN SOCIETY: ITS CHARACTERISTICS,
CONTRADICTIONS, AND CRITIQUES .

The Bureaucratization and Rationalization of
Modern Society . . .

The Split of Public and Private Domains .

Production, Consumption and Alienation

The Fetishism of Commodities

Reification .

Modern America: Anomic Abstraction

The Social Critics. Riesman and May . .

The Changing Critique: Mills and Slater .

The Critiques of the 705: Schur and Lasch .

Conclusion . . . . . . .

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY OF TEN SELF-HELP BOOKS .

How to Win Friends and Influence People .
Peace of Soul . . . .

The Power of Positive Thinking .

Life is North Living

 

Games People Play

 

I' m OK - You're 0K. .
How To Be Your Own Best Friend.
Your Erroneous Zones .

 

Looking Out For #1 .
Born to Win

 

A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE SELF-HELP BOOKS

The Approach. .
The Psychological Approach

iii

Page

vi

The Religious Approach. . . . . . . . . . 57

The Problem and Its Cause . . . . . . . 58
The Solution and Gratification Time . . . . . 6l
Role of Society and Societal Remedy . . . . . 64
Conclusion . . . . . . . . 71

V. THE REFINEMENT OF ALIENATION: MODERN SOCIETY AND
SELF-HELP BOOKS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

The Packaging of Public Issues as Private

Troubles . . . . . . . 74
The Undersocialized Conception of People . . . . 75
The Perversion of Real Life . . . . . . . . 79
The Self-Help Industry. . . . Bl
Fetishism and Reification in Self— -Help Books . . 83
Religion as Psychology. . . . . . . . . . 84
Psychology as Religion . . . . . . . . . . 85

Self-Help Books as Hegemonic . . . . . . . . 87
Language as Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . 89
Inauthenticity . . . . . . 90
The Production of False Consciousness . . . . 92

Conclusion: The Negation of Personality and
Social Change Through Self-Absorption . . . . 94
Future Considerations . . . . . . . 95

NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lOl

iv

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page
l. Best Selling History of the Self-Help Books . . . . 26

2. A Schematic Analysis of Self-Help Books: The Problem,
Its Cause, Solution and Societal Consequence . . . 56

PREFACE

The genre of literature known as self-help is responsible
for producing a very specific image of the relationship between
individuals and their society. Attempting to establish the acting
individual as the creator of his/her own social world, these books
ignore the social nature of the world. Self-help books present
individuals as free from all social constraints and capable of being
whatever they choose. The only obstacle to gratification, according
to these authors, is an individual's refusal to become what s/he
potentially is. According to self-help books, it is individuals
who dominate society and shape its contours to fit their desires.
This vision of the individual's position over and above society
stems from self-help authors' claim that consciousness creates
being. Pe0ple are what they think and how they feel; they are not
shaped by their relationship to a broader social order.

How self-help books are able to posit this unique relation-
ship between self and society is one question to be considered here.
It is a question concerning the content of the books themselves.

In order to do this, the themes of ten self-help books, published
over the past forty years, will be analyzed. But to understand
these books more fully, it is necessary to place them in the context
of the society in which they appear. The question then changes

from how the books can present their image of the relationship

vi

between the individual and society, to how the reality shown in the
books fits social reality. At the heart of this issue is the idea
that self-help books are ideological in nature and present people
with a picture of social reality totally discrepant with the modern

world.

vii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The manner in which literature reflects and/or creates the
contemporary period in which it is produced has long been an area
of interest for students of literary forms. For sociologists these
questions have not held the same allure. The body of work known as
the Sociology of Literature is a small and underdeveloped one. Yet
nothing seems so sociologically compelling as the questions: What
do people read, and how do the books they read influence their per-
ception of society? The importance of these questions initially
generated my interest in the social nature of literature.

My interest in literature led to a thesis on self-help books
when it was combined with a fascination with the 19705. Because
the 19705 are so distinct from the 19605, there exists a need to
explain how that socially energetic decade gave way to the passiv-
ity of narcissism. But before the transition from the 19605 to the
l9705 can be explained, there is a need to better understand the
phenomenon that is the 19705. In order to grasp the social char-
acteristics of the l9705, I decided to explore some aspect of the
literature which had appeared during the decade. Since every year
of the 19705 saw the overwhelming popularity of self-help books, I

decided to analyze these best-selling books. Like all studies,

however, this one emerged and took on different shapes as I con-
tinued to work on it. What had begun as an analysis of the T9705
through its literature became a study of how self-help literature
had appeared during the past forty years. The literary form took
on a shared importance with the decades in which it appeared. And
an analysis of the T9705 evolved into an examination of American
society since the early l9505.

As a student of social theory, I became aware of the fact
that the reality presented in self-help books was vastly different
from social "reality." Society was being presented as a microcosm
of individual existence. The fragmented social world which self-
help books presented differed dramatically from the social totality
which social theorists described. From my own vantage point, I
viewed society as a totality and therefore when I set out to explore
modern society I looked to the economic formation which it was char-
acterized by, and the ideology which upholds that formation.
Because many sociologists have also considered this question, I
was able to draw on a wealth of literature to support my ideas.

The tradition which I have utilized to the greatest extent is the
Marxist one. It has been my hope that the reliance on this tradi-
tion and its application to popular cultural phenomena would show
the importance of utilizing a holistic view of society--a view
which looks at both superstructural and economic functions, to the
neglect of neither. I thought it necessary to consciously inte-
grate the economic and cultural aspects which are embodied in the

appearance of self-help books precisely because of the Twentieth

Century Western Marxist tradition, which evidenced the exclusion of
studies of the economy from studies of ideology.

This is not to claim that what appears in the pages to
follow is a systematic analysis of capitalist society and its ideo-
logical machinations. Rather, what the reader is provided with is
an overview of American society, and of a particular literary form
which has taken root and grown into an industry. What self-help
books have to say for themselves and about modern society is the
issue to be explored here. It is the question of how alienation
becomes exploited and packaged by entrepreneurs of the self.

Jurgen Habermas, in his work Theory and Practice, wrote: ". . .

the critique of ideology attains greater urgency to the degree that
the forms of alienation grow in refinement" (Habermas, l97l, p. 202).
The refinement of alienation in capitalist society as it is exempli-
fied in self-help books is the urgency which has ultimately brought

me to this critique of ideology.

CHAPTER II

MODERN SOCIETY: ITS CHARACTERISTICS,
CONTRADICTIONS, AND CRITIQUES

In November of 1978, fifteen hundred people gather in a
high school auditorium in Manhattan to attend "The Event, The First
Awareness Extravaganza." Among the celebrities present in Wayne
Dyer, best selling self-help author1 (lime, December 4, 1978).

Dyer is there to sell both his philosophy of living guilt free

and his new book, Pulling Your Own Strings. His first book, Your

 

Erroneous Zones, which marketed the same ideas, was bought by
hundreds of thousands of pe0p1e, as its place on the hardcover and
paperback best seller lists attest to (The World Almanac and Book

of Facts, 1977; New York Times Book Review, February 11, 1979).

 

But Dyer is not a solitary figure, a lone voice. 0n the contrary,
he is but one of a crowd of writers who speak in concert to the
American public about such concerns as guilt, anxiety, and worry.
These topics are among the most common dealt with in the
genre of literature known as self-help. Within recent history,
they find their first expression in the work of Dale Carnegie.
Carnegie's message is echoed and enlarged upon by Norman Vincent
Peale, and reaches its religious crescendo and climax in Fulton

Sheen's books. Beginning in the mid-19605, the words of Carnegie,

Peale, and Sheen resound and find their reverberation in the writ-
ings of Berne, Harris, Dyer, Ringer, and many others. Whereas God
and the Bible had previously been seen by Peale and Sheen as the
vessels through which personal salvation from everyday worries
could be found, the self, and manuals exaulting the self, soon
took their place. Fulton Sheen's quest for Peace of Soul became

Robert Ringer's drive for Looking Out for Number One, and the pro—

 

duction of tranquility of mind through holiness became the consump-
tion of images of self through awareness (Lasch, 1979, p. 75).
Where God once stood vested with magisterial power, the self now
stood vested with psychological prowess.

Yet in the overwhelming popularity of these works an anomaly
appears. In a society where individualism has been endorsed and
embraced for two hundred year5,the ultimate in individualism has
been achieved. What Christopher Lasch, Richard Sennett, and Peter
Marin have called the "new narcissism" has driven the American
ideology to its pinnacle, and revealed the bankruptcy which rests
at its very base. Individualism, which was initially meant to frame
the free market economy of early capitalism, has, in the period of
late capitalism, become another commodity, packaged and marketed by
Madison Avenue (Berger, Berger, and Kellner, 1974, pp. 97-118;
Habermas, 1976, pp. 363-387). Bureaucratization of society, the
split between the public and private domains, and the alienation
that dominates the contemporary world, have in large part been

responsible for this occurrence.

The Bureaucratization and Rationalization
of Modern Society

With the industrialization of American society in the
nineteenth century, the face of institutions began to change.
Primarily evidenced in the economic and familial sectors, these
changes were championed by a system which advocated bureaucratiza-
tion and rationalization. As initially analyzed by Max Weber,
bureaucracies are characterized by ordered hierarchies, impersonal
regulations, and specifically allocated duties (Weber, 1946, p. 196).
Particularly modern, with an orientation toward rigor, bureaucracies
are not without their favorable aspects. The functional manner
with which tasks are carried out and the structural orderliness of
power and authority relationships are intended to facilitate the
coordination of large industries (Coser, 1977, p. 231). The
pervasive impact of this new social organization, however, was one
which Weber saw as calamitous. This vision was chiefly attributable
to the rationalization which could be seen as a corollary of
bureaucratization.

Rationalization is inherent in the very concept of bureau-
cracy inasmuch as the latter endeavors to sublimate emotions and
eliminate personal perspectives from the purview of work. Modernity
is characterized by a functional rationality; a rationality which
sees only that which is calculable and efficient. Substantial
rationality, the hallmark of earlier eras, which saw the world as
a totality and ideas as connected, has dissipated (Coser, 1977, p.

438). In its place stands a world as adamant in its disdain for

irrationality as it is in its quest for rationality. As Weber

has written in his essay "0n Bureaucracy": ". . . the more
bureaucracy is dehumanized the more completely it succeeds in
eliminating from official business love, hatred, and all purely
personal, irrational and emotional elements which escape calculation"
(Weber, 1946, p. 216). This calculation, this quantification as
Lukacs would call it,2 is precisely what makes bureaucracies so

well organized and the world so decidedly split. For it is at

this point that work and life become divided, only to be reunited

by the fetishism of commodities on the plane of alienation.

The Split of Public and Private Domains

 

For families prior to industrialization, life and work were
one. No distinction was made between a person's public self or
private self. But when industry flourished life became more
complicated. Industry demanded that production take place accord-
ing to specific guidelines, and individual inventiveness was
scorned. It mattered little who a person was; it mattered completely
how much s/he could produce. Thus it evolved that the private
sphere, usually the family, became the locus of personal expression.
The rationality of the workplace gave way, at a designated time of
day, to the irrationality of the home. Workers experienced the
world as split, with different behaviors sanctioned at different
places. At home people were free to be themselves, to experience
life as subjective participants, and not as objective cogs. The

activity of the workplace came to be seen as something to be

endured, while the activities purused in leisure became focused on
personal fulfillment. As Eli Zaretsky has stated in his excellent
work Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Family Life: "The family now
became the major space in society in which the individual self
could be valued for itself" (Zaretsky, 1973, p. 31). But the
influence of industrialization did not only split the world
ideologically in two with regard to labor and leisure. It also
separated it into units of production and consumption. And, like
the realm which it mirrors, these latter two also become reunited

through the fetishism of commodities and the resulting alienation.

Production, Consumption, and Alienation

 

In order to sustain capitalism it is imperative that after
the essential needs of life have been met (shelter, food, etc.),
new needs continuously be created. For this reason, commodity
production and commodity consumption have a shared importance in a
capitalist society. It is always necessary for new commodities to
be produced, so that they can be bought and used, and new needs
can be created--and so the cycle continues. Individuals and
families, therefore, play a strategic economic role in this system,
and their interrelationship with the market becomes vital to the
maintenance of capitalism. These people, however, are not only
consumers; they are also producers.

As producers of goods in a capitalist society, human beings
find themselves in a unique situation. Having "appropriated" nature

in order to create new materials which will be the catalyst for

generating new needs, people labor at a specific activity in order
to create a commodity and thus come to lose themselves in the
objects of their own production. Incapable of seeing that human
relations create goods, workers begin to see their labor as some-
thing that takes place outside them. It is not only in the labor
activity itself, however, that alienation occurs. The object
which is produced also appears as an alien entity. Individuals
are unable to penetrate the laws which cloak and propel capitalism,
so these laws begin to "confront peOple as invisible forces that
generate their own power" (Lukécs, 1967, p. 87). The culmination
of this process can be seen in the disconnectedness which is
produced among workers who see no unity in their activity, and in
individuals who neither own the means of production nor the product
itself. Karl Marx, in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts
of 1844, explains the further implications of this alienation:

Since alienated labour 1) alienates nature from man; and

2) alienates man from himself, and from his own active

life activity. . . 3). . . alienates from man his own

body, external nature, his mental life and his human life.

4) A direct consequence of [thi51 alienation . . . is that

man is alienated from other men" (Marx, 1964, p. 127 and

129).
Hence, society appears to the workers not as a totality, but as a
fragmented world in which they have no control. To quote Marx
further:

If the product of labour is alien to me and confronts me

as an alien power, to whom does it belong? If my own

activity does not belong to me but is an alien forced

activity, to whom does it belong? To a being other than
myself. And who is this being?" (Marx, 1964, p. 129).

10

This question is ignored in capitalism where its only rejoinder is

expressed in the fetishism of commodities.

The Fetishism of Commodities

". . . the problem of commodities," according to Georg
Lukacs, "must not be considered in isolation or even regarded as
the central problem in economics, but as the central, structural
problem of capitalist society in all its aspects" (Lukacs, 1967,
p. 83). Defined by Marx, "A conmodity is, in the first place, an
object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human
wants of some sort or another" (Marx, 1978, p. 303). Commodities
have this crucial place in capitalism because it is an economic
system predicated not on use, bur rather on exchange, values. Use
values are material items which have some type of utility; they
are useful. As a value, it only comes into being if consumption
takes place (Marx, 1978, p. 303). Exchange value, on the other
hand, differentiates between quantities and takes its name from the
exchange of use-values in different historical settings and periods
(Marx, 1978, p. 305). A complication arises, however, when a
commodity's exchange value comes to be seen as an intrinsic value,
inherent in the commodity itself and abstracted from its use value.
It is at this point that commodities begin to be fetishized, as
the human labor activity which created the commodities becomes
alien to the producers. Commodities are seen to have no connection
to those social relations that produced them; the product takes

on a life of its own defined only through the value it will bring

11

on the exchange market. The laborer is lost in this fetishism, and
the reification of society begins a process which will reach its
pinnacle in the commoditization of people and the reification of

3003 renes S .

Reification

 

Commodity fetishism, as discussed by Marx, occurs when a

commodity is seen as

. . . a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social

character of men's labour appears to them as an objective

character stamped upon the product of that labour,

because the relation of the producers to the sum total

of their own labour is presented to them as a social

relation, existing not between themselves but between

the products of their labour. This is the reason

why the products of labour become commodities, social

things whose qualities are at the same time perceptible

and imperceptible by the senses . . . definite social

relations between men, that assume in their eyes, the

fantastic form of a relation between things" (Marx, 1978,

p. 320).
This inability to penetrate the veil of capitalism that shields the
forces and relations of production from being perceived has a
dramatic impact on the consciousness of the members of society.
Unable to see that human activity creates the world, and only able
to focus on the domination of objects, the world of objects is
looked upon as "reality." A5 Marx has written in the preface to
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, the economic
structure of society produces corresponding forms of social
conscious, and "It is not the consciousness of men that determines
their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines

their consciousness" (Marx, in Tucker, 1978, p. 4). Since the

12

social being of those who inhabit capitalist societies is marked by
the transcendence of commodities over people, this commodity
structure creates reified consciousness. Characterized by the
primacy of things and their relations, reification permeates
capitalist society and is the hallmark of its consciousness.

Alienated from self, from product, from nature, and from
others, the modern worker is trapped by a culture which denies the
human being his/her place as a subject. Martin Jay, in explaining
the relational view that the Frankfurt School held on fetishism and
reification, described capitalist culture in this way: "Fetishiza-
tion . . . was . . . fundamentally an element of alienated capital-
ist culture, a culture in which men blindly venerated their own
products as reified objects" (day, 1973, p. 189). Thus, producing
a world where objects have become subjects, capitalist culture is

characterized by a malaise which permeates to its very depth.

Modern America: Anomic Abstraction

3

Jfirgen Habermas, in describing Marx's problematic, wrote:

Marx limited himself again and again, to confront only

one, the initial question . . . Why does this specific

historical and social situation exist under the objective

compulsion of which I myself have to preserve, arrange,

and conduct my life. Why is this existent thus and not

otherwise?" (Habermas, 1974, p. 202).
Before Marx could answer this question, however, he had to move to
a more fundamental one--what does this society look like; what is
it characterized by?

Contemporary American society is marked by contradictions.

Born in the fervor of revolution, nurtured on the spirit of

l3

individualism, sustained by the ideology of capitalism, America
finds itself in the early part of its third century decaying from
its very roots. Revolution has given way to malaise, individualism

4 In the face

to narcissism, and competition to state regulation.
of this milieu, people feel unable to control either their lives

or the world in which they live. Instead of being the creators of
the social world, people become the recipients of an objectively
imposed social roder. Anton Zijderveld, in describing the plight

of the individual in contemporary society, has written: "Modern
society is essentially an abstract society which is increasingly
unable to provide [people] with a clear awareness of [their] identity
and a concrete experience of meaning, reality and freedom"

(Zijderveld, 1970, p. 53). But in Michael Harrington's work,

The Accidental Century, it is clear that this malaise is a more

 

complex, more intricate one than Zijderveld has indicated.
Harrington has stated that the twentieth century appears as an
"accidental century," with no one claiming or accepting responsibil-
ity for the direction which social change has taken or will take.
In referring back to the initial American (laissez faire) economic
policy, Harrington states: "There is indeed an invisible hand in
all of this. Only it is shaping an unstable new world rather than
Adam Smith's middle class harmony" (Harrington, 1965, p. 16). From
this observation, it becomes apparent that the problem of modern
society is not only one of alienation, but also of anomie.

Modern society has an anomic character insofar as it lacks

any organized cohesion and is experienced by its members as a vague

l4

omnipresence. Social change, as Harrington indicates, occurs
randomly. Society is responsive only to crises and does not
provide a sense of direction to individuals. The social order has
become a maintenance system, attempting to ward off the always
incipient crisis.

There is a sense, however, in which the notion of an anomic
society and an abstract society appear contradictory. For it seems
somehow implausible that a society which has been vested with so
much power, which looks to be so devoid of subjective influence,
can lack the ability to regulate its populace through common norms.
And yet this is precisely the predicament which characterizes the
modern world and the people who inhabit this world. It is a world
at once powerful and impotent, coercive and anomic.

Influenced by industrialization and bureaucratization,
modern society has given birth to an individualism unique in
history. Analyzed by Berger, Berger, and Kellner in The Homeless
Eflgg, this creation of a highly individuated populace has given ‘
rise to "Ideologies and ethical systems of intense individualism . . .
[which has made] individual autonomy perhaps the most important
theme in the world view of modernity. Alienation is the price of
individuation" (Berger, Berger, Kellner, 1974, p. 196). Ironically,
however, it is exactly autonomy which social critics have presented

as the cure to social ills.

15

The Social Critics: Riesman and May

Beginning with David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd, critics

 

of society have defined autonomy as a desirable goal of life.
Investigating the relationship between demographic transitions and
types of social character, Riesman focuses on three ways in which
society is able to insure the conformity of the masses. Through

the construction of three ideal types--traditional, inner- and other-
directed societie55--Riesman posits a braod explication of various
social systems, and at the same time offers a solution to the
adaptiveness of individuals. Autonomy, so Riesman states, will end
the conformity which society had established initially through
traditions, subsequently through socialization, and currently

6 Individuals who are autonomous have the

through sociations.
capability of choosing between adaptiveness and non-adaptiveness,
and it is this freedom to choose which marks the break with
previous social characters. The hallmark of the autonomous being
is awareness. According to Riesman, a person's autonomy

depends not upon the ease with which he may deny or

disguise his emotions but, on the contrary, upon the

success of his effort to recognize and respect his own

feelings, his own potentialities, his own limitations

(Riesman, 1961, p. 259).
This view of reinvesting power in the individual through awareness
finds affirmation in the work of Rollo May.

Approaching the problem of modern society from the perspec-

tive of psychology, Rollo May, in his book Man's Search for Himself,

 

locates the nexus of the predicament in the loss of self-awareness.

He writes: "The less self-awareness an individual has the more he

16

is unfree" (May, 1973, p. 161). Throughout the course of his book,
May organizes his discussion in terms of the problem and the solu-
tion. Like Riesman, May believes that the solution rests in people
adapting the society to their needs, as opposed to the society
adapting the people to its needs. May states: "Our task, then,

is to strengthen our consciousness of ourselves, to find centers of
strength within ourselves, which will enable us to stand despite
the confusion and bewilderment around us" (May, 1973, p. 45). With
the development of inner resources people will gain the freedom or
autonomy to direct society.

Riesman and May both define the major characteristic of
contemporary society as the pervasiveness of individual anxiety.
This anxiety is a result of the powerlessness which is felt in the
face of alientation and anomie. The Lonely Crowd and Man's Search

for Himself both initially appeared during the 19505, but the

 

issues they addressed still ring true today, with a change occurring
not in the problems, but in the framework within which the critiques
are presented. This change was first evident in the work of C.

Wright M1115.

The Changing Critique: Mills and Slater

The Sociological Imagination stands, in many respects, as

 

a monument to C. Wright Mills, critic of both sociology and society.
With sharp analytic skills, Mills presents a scathing critique of
developments internal to sociology and, at the same time, presents

a picture of society not unlike that of Riesman and May. What

17

should be seen as public issues, according to Mills, are looked
upon as private troubles. Where publics should exist, there are
only masses. People are isolated, unaware of their broader connec-
tions to society, andlyfthe impact of history upon their lives. In
the opening paragraph of the book, Mills is able to capture this:

Nowadays, men often feel that their private lives are a

series of traps. They sense that within their everyday

worlds, they cannot overcome their troubles . . . Under-

lying this sense of being trapped are seemingly imper-

sonal changes in the very structure of continent wide

societies" (Mills, 1959, p. 3).

But where May and Riesman saw awareness as the solution to
the malaise experienced by members of society, Mills sees a richer
set of complexities. Mills himself has indicated this difference:

Put as a trouble of the individual (the breakdown of

community) . . . it is the trouble of alienation. As

an issue for publics . . . it is no less than the issue

of democratic society, as fact and as aspiration" (Mills,

1959, p. 172).
While Mills does not deny the necessity of awareness, which is
essential in transforming private troubles into public issues, his
critique is broader in conception and larger in scope and marks a
turning point in critical thought. For it is at this point that
criticisms of American society, by AmeriCan sociologists, undergo
a transformation, and bring into question the foundations upon
which society stands. Apropos of Marx's dictum, the critics had
previously only interpreted the world; the point now, however, was
to change it. Philip Slater's books are characteristic of the

work of this genre which has appeared since the late 19505.

18

American society, as depicted by Slater in The Pursuit of

 

Loneliness and Earthwalk, is one bent on its own destruction.
Focusing on the bankruptcy of basic social values such as individual-
ism and competition, Slater presents a bleak picture of American
culture at its breaking point." Disconnected from others, continu-
ously engaged in a struggle to prove personal uniqueness, contem-
porary individuals live lives of "quiet desperation." The ethic

of success, which lies at the very heart of all that is American,
is the core value which Slater finds most distasteful. Fostering
competition, instead of cooperation, this ethic has divided the
populace and produced an indivious individualism. According to
Slater: "No one could have done more than popular social critics
of the 19505 (Fromm, Riesman, Whyte, et al.) to convince people

of the virtues of disconnectedness" (Slater, 1974, p. 61). So it
evolved that the autonomy which had previously been embraced and
encouraged became the focus of a new set of critique5--the critique

of narcissism.

The Critiques of the 705: Schur and Lasch
The 19605 were marked by a unique political orentation, for
it was during this decade that the personal became political, and

7 But in the 19705 the

misfortunes became defined as injustices.
personal has once again taken primacy over the political, apparently
having grown stronger and more emphatic during its hiatus. Jane
Howard has described the re-entrenchment this way: "And so it is

curious fact that now, in the final third of our century, many

19

among us are attempting to program candor and trust and intimacy
the same way others program voyages to space" (Howard, 1973, p. 3).
And so it is curious that the success ethic, which Slater ridiculed
so thoroughly, has penetrated the realm of private lives--that
psychological success has become a goal for those people who are
trying to be "their own best friends" by "looking out for number
one." In his book concerning this topic, Edwin Schur has explored
the cult of self worship currently gripping the culture. Entitled

The Awareness Trap, and subtitled "Self Absorption Instead of Social
8

 

Change," Schur's analysis finds its foci in the anomic condition of
society; the dissatisfaction felt with interpersonal relations; and
the manner in which self involvement diverts attention from social
change (Schur, 1977, p. 8). Simplistic in approach, and in many
wasy mirroring the popular culture he seeks to criticize,9 Schur's
main thesis is nevertheless one well taken: the self-help industry
is a-social in orientation and a-historical in presentation.
Schur's secondary thesis, that self absorption prevents social
change, is one that has been contested in a recent work by
Christopher Lasch.

The Culture of Narcissism, Lasch's latest book, is the most
complex analysis of the 19705 to appear thus far. Addressing
himself to a broad range of institutions effected by what Peter
Marin has described as the "new narcissism," Lasch's analysis
includes a critique of sports, education, family, and sex. In

keeping with Schur, but more emphatic in his point, Lasch defines

the problem of contemporary society as the loss of a sense of

20

history. It is this loss that Lasch posits as the distinguishing
characteristic of the 19705. For by losing an existential relation-
ship with posterity, the present becomes transcendent in all
spheres. Gone is any notion of a future built through struggle;
omnipotent stands the here and now. In place of a dynamic vision
of what could be, individuals today are faced with a static version
of what is. The "ought" has been demolished; the "is" stands
supreme.

In the face of this, people have turned to the only
certainty in their lives--themse1ves. An entire cult of personality
has sprung up predicated on the hope that, in the self, there is
stability. Lasch sees this phenomena not as an affirmation of
personality but as its negative moment. The private sphere has not
enveloped the public sphere but, on the contrary, it is public life
which is enveloping private life. Captialism is destroying person-
ality by the very act of reifying it. Thus, self-absorption does
not obscrue social change. The cult of self-worship grows as a
consequent of, not in reaction to, the broader society. To quote
Lasch: .

They [the new therapies] do this, [intensify the disease
of modern society] however, not by diverting attention
from social problems to personal ones . . . but by
obscuring the social origins of suffering . . . that is
painfully but falsely experienced as purely personal

and private“ (Lasch, 1979, p. 30).

Lasch perceives his analysis as contradictory to Schur's.
But there is a dialectical element that Lasch has been unable to

capture.10 Schur has aruged that to focus on the self is to prevent

21

social change. Lasch has argued that is is not social change that
is being prevented but the vision of the social origins of the
diseased culture. A dialectical version of this situation would
see that the self-help industry does indeed becloud "public issues"
by focusing on "private troubles,“ and at the same time obscures
the origins of the problem. Defining a social problem as a
"private trouble" allows people to miss the connection between
their lives and society; therefore people cannot penetrate the

cloak that shields the cultural origin of the problem.

Conclusion

 

Most people will never read the critiques of Schur and
Lasch, however; instead, they will read self-help books. Proof
of this can be seen in the fact that the self-help industry
flourishes and grows daily. Participating in a quest which can
never fulfill needs grown discrepant with social reality, individ-
uals avidly embrace any new awareness experience that appears on
the market. Unaware that they are consuming reified images of self,
blind to the fact that they are at once producers, consumers, and
products of the self-help industry, people continue to search for
themselves in the work of such disparate figures as Eric Berne and
Robert Ringer.

Herbert Marcuse described the essential dilemma which such
a search creates: "in a repressive society, individual happiness
and productive development are in contradiction; if they are

defined as values to be realized within this society, they become

22

themselves repressive" (Marcuse, 1955, p. 223). The search appears
doomed from its inception; and yet, instead of growing discouraged,
participants in the culture of self-help continue to consume the
words of their gurus at a rapid rate. Cognizance of this fact
leads to an essential question. Once the bindings have been
cracked, the contents digested, what picture of the self and the
society is the reader taking away with him/her? An investigation
of some of the more popular of these works, and an examination of
their historical antecedents, should prove illuminating. Attention
must now be turned to the question of what it means to be "born to

win."

CHAPTER III

A DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY OF TEN SELF-HELP BOOKS

In March of 1979 Publisher's Weekly issued its compilation
of the top selling hard cover books published during the previous
year. Placing fifth on the nonfiction list was Wayne Dyer's latest
self-help book, Pulling Your Own Strings (Detroit Free Press, 1979,
p. 13C). By gaining best seller status, Dyer's book sustained a
pattern established forty years earlier by Dale Carnegie'spflpw_tg
Win Friends and Influence People-~the prominence of self-help books
among best selling works of fiction. Recorded annually by

Publisher's Weekly, and later documented in The World Almanac and

 

 

Books of Facts, this best seller list has produced two distinct
trends among popular self-help books published since 1937. The

first trend, foreshadowed by Carnegie, was characterized by an
emphasis on religion and the individual, and is epitomized by the
writings of Norman Vincent Peale and Fulton Sheen. In the mid-

19605, religion gave way to psychology; and, in the world of self-
help books, this change was exemplified by the works of Berne, Harris,
Ringer, and Dyer, to name just a few. While changing the conceptual
framework of Peale and Sheen, these latest authors maintained their
predecessors' focus on the individual. For it is the acting

individual, made humble by religion or proud by psychology, who is

23

24

always at the center of these books; and it is this same individual
who consumes these works, producing in the process a market for and
of self-help books.

In the following discussion, I have chosen to focus on ten
self-help books. The selection for the books was based on the con-

dition that they must have appeared on the Publisher's Weekly list

 

of best selling books for a given year. [Furthermore, the books had

11

to be published between 1936 and 1977, and have appeared on the

best selling list between 1937 and 1978. The Publisher's Weekly

 

list was relied on because it gives an enumeration of the best

sellers for a year.) The information which Publisher's Weekly uses

 

is a "compilation of data received from large city, university, and
chain bookstores, and independent distributors nationwide"

(Publisher's Weekly, 1978, p. l). Publisher's Weekly is a magazine

 

which serves as a journal for the publishing trade. It is published
weekly, and includes advertisements for new books, gives information
about what is currently happening in the industry, and provides a
list of best selling books.

The list of best selling books which Publisher's Weekly puts

together is subsequently reproduced in The World Almanac and Book of

 

Facts. This almanac is an information compendium which gives
readers statistics and facts about what has happened during the
previous year. By utilizing the list in the almanac from 1937 to

1978, and then checking the Publisher's Weekly for accuracy, I

 

arrived at a preliminary list of twenty books. These books were

selected according to specific criteria.

25

The criterion used was that a book was a self-help book;
that is, it was directed at individuals, that it discussed problems
which the individual experienced, and that it provided the individual
with a solution to those problems which was based on personal change.
The book also had to be a best seller not just for a portion of the
year; it must have been one of the twenty books which sold the most
in a given year. The reason for choosing to analyze best sellers was
the idea that these were the most popular books of their kind, they
were bought by more people, and so were the most influential of the
self-help books.

Because it appeared impossible to describe and analyze the
initial twenty books, I reduced the number of books for my analysis
to ten. The choice of these books was based on the emergence of the
two trends previously noted. As I examined the best selling self-
help books over the past forty years, it became clear to me that
these two trends appeared during different time periods and exempli-
fied a shift in the nature of self-help books over the years. In
order to do justice to this shift, I chose books which achieved the
highest best selling status during the two periods. Thus, of the
ten self-help books I have examined, seven were the number one best
seller for the year. [See Figure l for information on the authors,
books, year of publication, year(s) on the best seller list, and
place on that list.) I also attempted to create an equality of
representation between the popular self-help books published before
and after the 1960's, those before 1960 being primarily religious;
those after 1960 being psychological.

26

 

 

 

Year Years on Place on
of Best List of Best
Publica- Seller Selling Books
Author Book tion List of the Year
Carnegie How to Win Friends and 1936 1937 1
Influence People
Sheen Peace of Soul 1949 1949 5
Peale The Power of Positive 1951 1953 I
Thinking
Sheen Life is Worth Living 1951 1952 4
Berne Games People Play 1964 1965 19
1966 1
1967 1
Harris I'm OK — You’re OK 1967 1972 4
1973 l
Newman 8 How to Be Your Own 1971 1974 1
Berkowitz Best Friend
Dyer Your Erroneous Zones 1976 1976 1
1977 4
Ringer Looking Out for #1 1977 1977 2
James 8 Born to Win 1971 1978 1
Jongeward
FIGURE 1

BEST SELLING HISTORY OF THE SELF-HELP BOOKS

27

The analysis begins with Dale Carnegie and his book flpw_tg
Win Friends and Influence People. Although it was published in 1936
Carnegie's book remained popular throughout the ensuing decades,
including the '405, '505, '605 and '705. It has been used as the
starting point because it marks the beginning of a new era of self-
help books. The themes and theses which Carnegie puts forth are
harmonious with those which will be repeated for the next forty

years.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

 

For ten years, from 1939 to 1949, Dale Carnegie's book
How to Win Friends and Influence People dominated the best seller
list. As of October 1977 it had sold over 8,400,000 copies (Carnegie,
1977, pl 3). Now in its one-hundred and sixth printing, Carnegie's
work maintains its simple message and popular appeal. Hailed as a
"blueprint for success," Carnegie's approach is direct and instru-
mental. Offering formula answers to personal and business problems,
How to Win Friends and Influence Eggple promises to: "Get you out of
a mental rut . . . ;Increase your popularity . . . ; Increase your
influence . . 3 Increase your earning power . . . ; Make you a better
salesman . . . ; and, Make the principles of psychology easy for you
to apply in your daily contacts" (Carnegie, 1977, book cover).
Carnegie's assumptions are transparent and easily located. He
believes, as do all other authors to be considered here, that an
individual shapes his/her own world, and is capable of creating a
successful career and life if the formulas outlined in How to Win

Friends and Influence People are adhered to. Carnegie writes:

28

"Picture to yourself how their mastery [the principles in the book]
will aid you in your race for richer social and financial rewards.
Say to yourself over and over: “My popularity, my happiness, and
my income depend to no small extent upon my skill in dealing with
people" (Carnegie, 1977, p. 56). And it is precisely these inter-
personal skills which Carnegie aims to provide his readers with.

The interpersonal skills which Carnegie is seeking to
engender in his audience range from making good conversation, to
creating popular personalities, to managing good impressions
(Carnegie, 1977, p. 10). All these techniques are utilized in
order to foster worthwhile social and economic relationships for the
reader, and it is their economic utility which give Carnegie's
formulas their instrumental character. Nowhere is this better
illustrated than in the chapter headings of his book, among which
are: "Fundamental techniques in handling people; Six ways to make
people like you; Twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking;
and, Nine ways to change people without giving offense or arousing
resentment" (Carnegie, 1977, pp. vii and viii). Carnegie's ideas
are ruled by the assumptions apparent in these chapter titles--it is
possible and profitable to manipulate other people for an individual's
best interest; it is also possible to change self and others by
taking the time to adapt a different perspective on living--
Carnegie's.

But Carnegie's assertions do not stop there, for the goal he

is setting for all people is happiness, and he sees the achievement

29

of this goal as being dependent not on "outward conditions [but]

. on inner conditions" (Carnegie, 1977, p. 74). There are no
boundaries in attaining happiness, for as Carnegie writes:

It isn't what you have or what you are or where you are

or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.

It is what you think about it . . . I saw as many happy

faces among the Chinese coolies sweating and toiling in

the devastating heat of China for 7¢ a day as I see on

Park Avenue (Carnegie, 1977, p. 74).
Happiness, like success and fulfillment, depends on how the indi-
vidual views the world. Monetary and psychic rewards are available
in abundance if only people would realize that they hold the keys
in their hands, and that those keys can produce "miracles" by
creating a new way of life (Carnegie, 1977, p. 226).

If Carnegie's miracles remain secular in nature, Fulton

Sheen's miracles are decidedly religious, thus maintaining the

medium but altering the message.

Peace of Soul

 

Unlike Dale Carnegie, Fulton J. Sheen, in his book Peace of
Sppl, defines the existence of a major social problem. "Modern
man," Sheen writes, "has locked himself in the prison of his own
mind and only God can let him out" (Sheen, 1954, p. 13). But Sheen
believes this problem has been wrongly seen as a "public issue"
when in actuality it is a "private trouble." The problem is a
contemporary malaise, a pervading anxiety. Sheen puts the problems
and solutions of modern society into a simple dichotomous formula--

the problem is the separation of people from their God; the solution

30

is their reunification. It is to these two issues that Sheen
addresses himself.

"Anxiety increases in direct proportion as man departs from
God" (Sheen, 1954, p. 16). This departure, according to Sheen, has
been caused by the contemporary pressures towards a disbelief in
God. Commenting on the modern world, he writes: "In other days men
were anxious about their souls, but modern anxiety is principally
concerned with the body; the major worries of today are economic
security, health, the complexion, wealth, social prestige, and sex"
(Sheen, 1954, p. 14). Sheen is nothing short of contemptuous of
these developments. He sees the world as God-less and its
inhabitants as egocentric. People are not concerned with the salva-
tion of their immortal souls, but rather with the pleasures of their
mortal bodies: "Not the order of the cosmos, but the disorder in
himself; not the visible things of the world, but the invisible
frustrations, complexes, and anxieties of our personality--these are
modern man's starting point when he turns questioningly towards
religion" (Sheen, 1954, p. 2). When the turn to religion occurs,
it is to solve the same problem that Carnegie addresses:
unhappiness.

For Sheen, life is filled with unhappiness because of
original sin, because a people separated from their true nature--
holiness--cannot find peace. The only cure for this state of being,
short of eternal life with God (which is the ultimate quest), is to
become filled with Christ's presence. "The secret of life is

centeredness. The God responsive soul becomes deaf to the prompting

31

of the senses, for to him God is everything" (Sheen, 1954, p. 55).
Once people become aware of this need to turn to God, two major
crises in life may be resolved--guilt and depression. In Sheen's
view both phenomena exist because of human frailty and a refusal to
acknowledge this frailty. If people would face the fact that they
should feel guilty and that they should have faults, that only God
is guilt and fault free, then they should have faults, that only God
1954, pp. 62-101). "The voice of God," writes Sheen, "causes dis-
content within the soul in order that the soul may search further
and be saved" (Sheen, 1954, p. 213).

It is Sheen's belief, as expressed in Peace of Soul, that

 

people must remake themselves before they can remake the world, and
that "the tormented minds of today are not the effects of our
tormented world; it is our upset minds that have upset the world"
(Sheen, 1954, p. 244). One of the chief ways to create personal
change is through the achievement of freedom--of both body and soul.
Freedom helps people to perfect themselves:

Just as we are free on the inside because we can call our

soul our own, so we want to be free on the outside by

calling possessions our own. Personal or private owner-

ship is natural to man; it is the economic guarantee of

freedom, as the soul is its spiritual guarantee (Sheen,

1954, p. 147).
In the end, freedom becomes the right to be redeemed; for, as Sheen
continually points out, it is not revolution that people need but

rather redemption.

’32

The Power of Positive Thinking

At the close of his book, The Power of Positive Thinking,

 

Norman Vincent Peale wrote: "You have finished this book. What have
you read? Simply a series of practical and workable techniques for
living a successful life. You have read a formula of belief and
practice which should help you win victory over every defeat"

(Peale, 1952, p. 224). The defeats which Peale talks of are everyday
feelings of guilt and worry. The victory which Peale is speaking of
is an eternal one, as well as an everyday one. Peale has done

nothing less than created a religious How to Win Friends and Influence

 

People. An examination of the back cover of Peale's book illustrates
that it could be easily exchanged with Carnegie's:

This famous book will show you: How faith in yourself

makes good things happen to you; How to break the worry

habit; How to get other people to like you; How to believe

in yourself; . . . and, How to build new power and

determination through a simple formula that really

works . . . (Peale, 1952, book cover).
But if Carnegie and Peale agree on the ends which they wish their
readers to achieve, they fundamentally disagree as to what the means
to those ends should be. For what Peale has done has been to keep
Sheen's religious means while establishing secular ends.

Norman Vincent Peale's message to the public is one of faith.

If people would turn their lives over to God, if they would believe
in themselves, and if they would follow the "dynamic spiritual
formula" which Peale has provided them, peace, success, and happiness

would be theirs. According to Peale: ". . . religious faith . . .

is a scientific procedure for successful living" (Peale, 1952, p. 59).

33

And the way to gain that faith is through prayer; for it is only
through God that individuals can remake themselves so that they get
the most out of their lives--both psychically and financially.

Like Carnegie, Peale defines that happiness is a state of
mind which each person chooses. Mental attitude, not social condi-
tions or outside forces, shapes the type of life which people live:
if they decide to be happy, then they shall be. The key to this
positive perspective is awareness of the omnipotent omnipresence of
God. Accordingly, Peale writes:

A machine is an assembly of parts according to the law of
God. When you love a machine and get to know it, you

will be aware that it has a rhythm. It is one with the
rhythm of the body, of the nerves, of the soul. It is in
God's rhythm and you can work with that machine and not

get tired if you are in harmony with it (Peale, 1952, p. 44).

As would be expected, Peale believes that by simply becoming
God directed a number of personal problems can be solved. Worry
becomes a part of ancient history by waking up each morning and say-
ing: "Worry is just a very bad mental habit. And I can change any
habit with God's help" (Peale, 1952, p. 131). Self doubt is alle-
viated by ten times repeating these dynamic words: "If God be for
us, who can be against us" (Peale, 1952, p. 25). Relaxation is
achieved by "[taking] on the 'unseen partner'" (Peale, 1952, p. 189).
By following the formula of “the greatest inspirational best seller
of our time," Peale believes that his audience will:

. . . [improve their relations to other people] . . .
become more popular, more esteemed, and well liked . . .
will [delight] in a new sense of well being . . . may
attain a degree of health not hitherto known . . . and
experience a new and keen pleasure in living . . . will

become [people] of greater usefulness and will wield . . .
expanded influence (Peale, 1952, p. x).

34

If this is what Peale foresees for his readers, his ideas pale

before the goals of Fulton Sheen.

Life is Worth Living

 

Like its predecessor Peace of Soul, Life is Worth Living

 

 

carries a religious message to those seeking resolutions to their
personal problems. Whether the difficulty is guilt or fatigue, the
answer remains God. But if Sheen did not reveal all of his assump-

tions in Peace of Soul, if some ideas were left to the reader to

 

ferret out, then Life is Worth Living provides the needed clarity.

 

Sheen does not waste time; he comes directly to his point:

If the troubles of our world are outside u5--socially and

economically--we shall have to submit to a cruel fate

indeed. If the trouble with the world lies inside the

human heart, then it is possible to remedy all that

trouble. We can remedy it by returning again to the great

tradition . . . of being once more a religious people,

loving our neighbor, our country, and serving God (Sheen,

1953, p. 27).
What Sheen provides in the rest of his book is the remedy itself.

The key to regaining religiosity is through awareness. This

awareness is dependent on several essential realizations, the most
important being that "personality has a religious basis . . . [that]
a person is a subject, not an object" (Sheen, 1953, p. 69). Coming
to grips with the religious nature of personality an individual,
according to Sheen, is charged with a new responsibility. No longer
an object in a misunderstood world, a person becomes a subject in a
God centered universe. At this point, people are capable of realizing
that: "what [they] love about [themselves] is the image of God in

[them] . . . (Sheen, 1953, p. 169). Finally, there is the culmination

35

when it is clear that God is the goal of life; and then, the "master
idea" is revealed: “. . . that we are made to know, love, and serve
God in this life and be happy with him forever in the next" (Sheen,
1953, p. 237).

As in Peace of Soul, Sheen's view in Live is Worth Living

 

is that the problems of the world emanate from its godlessness.
Individuals, according to this perspective, are too strong willed;
they need to be reminded of their subordinate position in the scheme
of things. "Our tragedy today is due basically to the human will
opposing the Divine Will," writes Sheen; and he makes it very clear
that the former needs to be submissive to the latter: "There is
peace in an individual when there is subordination of senses to
reason, of reason to faith, of body to soul, of the whole personality
to God" (Sheen, 1953, pp. 249 and 255). This submission takes place
when it is apparent that this world was not made for happiness; that
perfection cannot be achieved in this world; and that the world is
basically evil. It is then that people will stop their earthly search
for cures to everyday problems, and turn their eyes toward heaven in
search of eternal salvation.

The problems which other self help authors discuss also find

expression in Sheen's book. Like its companion volume Peace of Soul,

 

Life is Worth Living focuses on the problem of anxiety. Unlike other
authors (although consistent with all of his previous work), Sheen

sees anxiety not as a discrepancy between what is and what should be

in everyday life, rather, anxiety is ". . . a pull between [a person's]

desires for infinite happiness and the finite, limited happiness he

36

actually attains” (Sheen, 1953, p. 222). All human problems, even
fatigue, result from the absence of God in the world. All solutions
emanate from "having recourse to an outsdie power" (Sheen, 1953,

p. 235). But there is no complete earthly solution to these problems.
There is, however, temporary resolution in the acceptance of God;
total resolution exists only in the "next world.“ Thus, where other
self-help books seek to heal the wounds of life, Sheen seeks to open

them wide to let God in.

Games People Play

 

Eric Berne's book, Games People Play, is the first best
selling self-help book of the 19605, and marks a crucial turning
point in self-help literature. For the first time in the modern
period, a strictly psychological approach is turned into a format

for popular consumption. Written for the layperson, Games People

 

.Plgy utilizes the techniques of Berne's theory of transactional
analysis, and applies them to the manner in which individuals
respond to different types of interaction. In this work the concepts
dealt with in the previous literature become totally psychological in
nature. Gone is any notion of an otherworldly solution; resurrected
is the idea that the individual can take charge of his/her life, and
create change.

Transactional analysis is based on a theory of exchange.
When two or more people interact, they are taking part in a trans-
action. Transactions, according to Berne, are basic "units of social

intercourse" (Berne, 1964, p. 15). Social interaction takes place in

37

situations which are structured according to how poeple wish to
spend time. There are several options as to how time may be struc-
tured, including games and intimacy. Because "significant social
intercourse most commonly takes the form of games," this is the
topic which Berne chooses to discuss in his book (Berne, 1964, pp.
18-19). Conversely, intimacy is the least common form which inter-
action takes; thus, true intimacy becomes the goal of game-free
living.

Playing games depends upon the response of one individual's
ego states to another. There are three ego states: Parent, Adult,
and Child. Whenever a person is involved in an interaction they will
be exhibiting a specific ego state, which may change during the dura-
tion of that exchange. When a person is engaged in their Parent ego
state, they are psychologically acting on an internalized recording
of their own parents. In this state, people are judgmental and
critical, and react either as their parents actually did or in the
way their parents wanted. The Adult is the psychic state which
organizes reality in an objective way. The hallmark of their ego
state is autonomy and rationality. All individuals carry within
them the Child. The Child is described as an "archaic ego state,"
which is based on past experiences. Within the Child rests an
individual's spontaneity and creativity (Berne, 1964, pp. 23228).

Each of these ego states is essential to a healthy individual.
At some point, Parent, Adult, and Child behavior each serves as the
proper psychic response in an interaction. It is when an improper

ego state is functioning in a transaction that people begin to play

38

games with each other. Berne defines a game as: ". . . an ongoing
series of complementary ulterior transactions progressing to a well-
defined, predictable outcome . . . . Games are . . . chiefly
[characterized by]: 1) their ulterior quality, and 2) the pay-off"
(Berne, 1964, p. 48). Games are ulterior because it is not apparent
what a person is attempting to gain from an interaction, be it self-
or other-benificent, or punishment. Games also include pay-offs in
that they maintain an individual in a psychically comfortable and
familiar position.

Analysis of games usually takes place in group settings, but

by reading Games People Play a person can come to recognize the

 

private games which they are involved in, and begin to change.
Among the many games which Berne describes, there are: "Life games;
Marital games, Sexual games; Consulting room games; and Good games"
(Berne, 1964, pp. 7-8). In all, Berne provides his readers with
forty-one descriptions of games; and it is clear that most peOple are
playing games most of the time. Berne provides a reason for this:

Because there is so little opportunity for intimacy in

daily life and because some forms of intimacy (especially

intense) are psychologically impossible for most pe0ple,

the bulk of the time in serious social life is taken up

with playing games (Berne, 1964, p. 61).
But there is a way to move "beyond games" through awareness,
spontaneity, and intimacy.

For Berne, as for all authors in this genre, awareness is the

key to self-help. Realization, in this case, that playing games is

a way of life, must first be achieved before an acknowledgment can

be made that change is necessary. Overcoming the proclivity to act

39

as a Child or Parent when an Adult reaction is called for (or any
variation of this: e.g., acting as an Adult or Parent when a Child
is more appropriate), is the first step to living game free. The
next step is developing the capacity for spontaneity. Spontaneity,
according to Berne, means "options, the freedom to choose and express
one's feelings from the assortment available" (Berne, 1964, p. 180).
The need to have psychic pay-offs is obliterated, and the new
expression of spontaneity leads to a new found capacity for intimacy.
"Intimacy means the spontaneous, game-free candidness of an aware
person, the liberation of the eidetically perceptive, uncorrupted
child in all its naivete living in the here and now" (Berne, 1964,

p. 180).

When a person is able to develop in an aware, spontaneous,
and intimate way, they have achieved the ultimate goal in life--
autonomy. Autonomy, for Berne, is the ability to make choices inde-
pendent of external and internal forces. It is the regaining of
subjectivity, the coming to grips with one's Adult. When people are
able to control self and environment, they are truly autonomous--

they are living game free (Berne, 1964, pp. 182-183).

I'm 0K - You're 0K

 

[Transactional analysis] has given a new answer to people
who want to change rather than to adjust, to people who
want transformation rather than conformation. It is
realistic in that it confronts the patient with the fact
that he is responsible for what happens in the future no
matter what has happened in the past. Moreover, it is
enabling persons to change, to establish self-control

and self-direction, and to discover the reality of freedom
of choice (Harris, 1969, p. 13).

40

This is how Thomas Harris describes Eric Berne's theory of
transactional analysis, the theory which he used as the basis for his

best selling I'm 0K - You're 0K. Heralded on its cover as the book

 

that was "changing the lives of millions," Harris's work utilizes the
ego states of Parent, Adult, Child, and incorporates them into a
scheme of four life positions. According to Harris, people are
capable of exhibiting any one of these life positions: I'm not OK -
You're OK; I'm not 0k - You're not OK; I'm 0K - You're not OK; and
I'm 0K - You're UK. As in the other self-help books, this one
explicates a negative starting point, I'm not OK - You're 0K, and
contrasts that to the goal the reader should achieve upon the book's
completion--I'm 0K - You're OK.

I'm not OK - You're 0K is the life position most people
occupy, and it is one which characterizes a predominant number of
childhoods (Harris, 1969, p. 67). Based on nonverbal communication,
this position is the result of a decision children make as to why
they feel helpless, and most children carry it with them through
adulthood. Harris characterizes the first life position as the "most
deterministic decision of . . . life. It is permanently recorded and
influences everything he does" (Harris, 1969, p. 60). Because of
this situation, people take to playing games, and thus perpetuate a
cycle of frustration.

The second and third life positions, I'm not OK - You're not
OK and I'm 0K - You're not OK, are both positions of helplessness.

In the I'm not OK - You're not OK position, an individual is not

involved in positive interactions, and has made up his/her mind that

41

the purpose of life is not to live but rather to exist, to merely
get by (Harris, 1969, p. 70). Harris calls the third life position
the "criminal position." A person occupying this niche has decided
that the world is pathological, that s/he is the only "0K" inhabitant
in the universe. This drastic decision, according to Harris, has
been caused by some early form of brutalization, either physical or
psychic (Harris, 1969, p. 73).

All three of these initial life decisions are based on emotion.
Each is flawed in its own way. The life position that everyone should
be able to occupy is the one that is based on thoughtful decision,
the I'm 0K - You're 0K one. As Harris notes, however, "we do not
drift into a new position. It is a decision we make. In this
respect it is like a conversion experience" (Harris, 1969, p. 74).
The rest of Harris' book is given over to a discussion, based pri-
marily on the I'm not OK - You're 0K decision, of the techniques
which are the substance of conversion.

Like Berne, Harris maintains that people usually respond to
social stimuli by playing back old recordings which have become
lodged in their heads. But whereas Berne viewed the Parent as the
chief offender, Harris sees the Child as providing the old tapes.
Transactional analysis, the study of ego states, allows for the
examination of who is doing the acting in any given social situation.
Harris believes that if an individual can realize that the decision
to be not OK is based on feeling and not thought, if s/he can be

aware of his/her own ego states and those of others, then a strong,

42

autonomous Adult could be created and an I'm 0K - You're 0K position
achieved.

Unlike Berne, however, Harris moves beyond the analysis of
individual ego states and games, and explores the realm of society.
Harris believes that in transactional analysis he has found the cure
to the ”human condition" and to societal ills. Sweeping generaliza-
tions occupy the author, as he turns his attention from individuals
to the salvation of the world:

. society cannot change until persons change. We base

our hope for the future on the fact that we have seen

persons change. How they have done so is the good news of

this book. We trust it may be a volume of hope and an

important page of the manual for the survival of mankind

(Harris, 1969, p. 304).
One of the most important concerns in creating this manual is how it
will be written. Harris voices the belief that transactional
analysis should be the language of the manual; and, more than that,
should become the common language for explaining human behavior
(Harris, 1969, p. 294). Every individual must realize that "the
problems of the world . . . are essentially problems of individual"

(Harris, 1969, p. 17). All people must become as one, in order to

speak in unison--I'm 0K - You're 0K.

How To Be Your Own Best Friend
Written as a conversation among psychoanalysts, Mildred
Newman and Bernard Berkowitz, and interviewer Jean Owen's How to Be
Your Own Best Friend has achieved extraordinary acclaim from a host
of celebrities including actors and writers (Newman and Berkowitz,

1971, book cover). Far removed from the religious rhetoric of Peale

43

and Sheen, and equally distant from the psychological jargon of

Berne and Harris, How to Be Your Own Best Friend is simple in language

 

and direct in approach. Newman and Berkowitz, however, have not
departed from the format of self-help books. Both the problem which
they define, and the solution they provide, are harmonious with those
offered in other self-help literature.

Like Sheen, Berne, and Harris, Newman and Berkowitz view the
problem of contemporary society as that of contemporary individuals.
According to Newman and Berkowitz the issue is that: ". . . not
enough people have that sense of zest in their daily lives. Too
many people have just not mastered the art of being happy" (Newman
and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 20). The art of being happy is what Hpg_tg
Be Your Own Best Friend is all about, and the first step in that

 

direction is the realization that each person controls his/her own
destiny.

The source is not oustide us, it is within. Most of us

haven't begun to tap our own potential; we're operating

way below capacity. And we'll continue to as long as we

are looking for someone to give us the key to the kingdom.

We must realize that the kingdom is in us; we already have

the key (Newman and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 22).
Not only does each person already hold the keys to the kingdom, but
each person is the kingdom.

Many self-help books rest on the idea that personal change
primarily rests on making a decision to change. Newman and Berkowitz
state: ". . . we can all help outselves . . . First you have to make
a very basic decision: do you want to lift yourself up or put your-

self down?" (Newman and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 25).

44

At the same time that How to Be Your Own Best Friend

 

embraces the basic format of self-help literature (by locating the
problem in the individual), it openly criticizes positive thinking,
and invokes the appeal of the religious approach. 0n the power of
positive thinking, they write:

Positive thinking has more than a grain of truth in it,

but it goes too far. Or maybe it doesn't go far enough.

When you rely on will power, on "making up your mind,"

you're using only one of the tools you need to make a

change . . . You are making the assumption that change

has to be imposed from above . . . Real growth can only

come from within yourself (Newman and Berkowitz, 1971,

pp. 42-43).

According to Newman and Berkowitz growth comes from being
able to understand and control the world. This ability is what
religion offers and it explains the appeal that religion has held
for people throughout history. It is this appeal which these authors
attempt to create in their own work. Encouraging poeple to "love
themselves as well as their neighbors," these two psychoanalysts
believe that if everyone decides to take life into his/her own
hands, then each person would be able to direct the course of his/
her life, and realize that s/he is his/her own best friend.

Coming to grips with this fact, that each person is his/her
own best friend, is accepting a reality which has always been
intrinsically present in the innermost regions of the self. Awareness
of this fact has been clouded over by misconceptions that other people
are the most important facet of life. This notion can be changed,

however, when people realize they are their own best friends because:

they do not stand in judgment of themselves; they do not deny

45

themselves pleasure; and they do not believe that self-centeredness
is selfishness. Finally, the authors exhort the reader to develop a
realistic picture of what their book can do for them.
If we can learn to love and nurture ourselves, we will find
ourselves richer than we ever imagined. We will still be
beset by real problems and suffer real defeats . . . But
we can bring everything we have to bear on the challenges
life presents and make the very most of what it offers us
(Newman and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 89).
This "very best that life has to offer" became a focal point of the

next self-help book to achieve popular status.

Your Erroneous Zones

 

In keeping with his profession, Wayne Dyer's book, Your

Erroneous Zones, is written as a counseling session. Any chapter

 

may be read independently of the rest of the book, for each chapter
serves as a total advice giving body, and each reiterates the main
ideas which Dyer seeks to impart to his readers. Dyer is very clear
about his intentions: "This book outlines a pleasant approach to
achieving happiness--an approach that relies on responsibility for
and commitment to yourself, plus an appetite for living and a desire
to be all that you choose at this moment" (Dyer, 1976, p. 2). Thus
choice, that is, deciding on choices, once again holds the central
position in changing people's attitudes about themselves. For Dyer,
all choices come down to one essential issue: how do choices affect
the person making them? If decisions create a more positive, more
self-loving individual, then that individual has made the right
choices. Dyer takes this point further than any other self-help

author when he insists: "You Are The Sum Total of Your Choices"

46

(Dyer, 1976, p. 3). By "taking charge of the present moment," people
insure these right choices and imbue themselves with self confidence.
In this way, they eliminate what Dyer calls "erroneous zones," and
institute a new way of life characterized by happiness.

Erroneous zones are places where self-defeating behaviors are
exhibited; they are places where problems in living appear (Dyer,
1976, p. 3). Exploring erroneous zones allows a person to discover
why s/he indulges in self-destructive behavior, and at the same time
enables him/her to develop strategies for eliminating the cause of,
and need for, such behavior (Dyer, 1976, p. 3). In the course of
his book, Dyer discusses a number of these zones, such as anxiety,
guilt, worry, and self-loathing. But Dyer's work not only returns to
these fundamental categories; it also recaptures the formula of
previous best selling self-help books by listing solutions and goals.
Although Dyer does not use enumeration (i.e., relying on the repeti-
tion of his sayings ten times a day), he does, in citing ways to
alleviate detrimental behavior in a simplistic way, return to the very
core of the self-help tradition. If Peale religiousized Carnegie,
then Dyer psychologizes Peal, and in the process produces a more
contemporary version of The Power of Positive Thinking.

The power of Dyer's brand of positive thinking is that it rids
an individual of anxiety, guilt, and worry, and replaces them with
self-love. This self-love is predicated on self-acceptance. "Self-
love means accepting yourself . . . Acceptance means no complaining,
and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you

can do nothing" (Dyer, 1976, p. 35). Each individual is born into a

47

state of happiness, and becomes unhappy because of bad thoughts about
other people or situations which they cannot control. This cycle of
bad thoughts is broken by awareness, and borne of the realization
that "only you can improve your lot or make yourself happy" (Dyer,
1976, p. 19). Everything that an individual desires can be his/hers,
be it intelligence or creativity, if s/he is aware of the options
that are available, and if s/he realizes that all people control their
own destinies through rational living.
People who are aware live in the present moment and exist by
the rules of a personal philosophy which is most advantageous to the
fulfillment of their desires. Developing into an aware person calls
for the elimination of erroneous zones through the ability to choose,
to break the pre-existing patterns of self-defeating behavior. Dyer
offers the instructions needed to do this in his discussion of anger:
"Like all erroneous zones, anger is a means of using things outside
yourself to explain how you feel. Forget others. Make your own
choices and don't let them be angry ones" (Dyer, 1976, p. 194). By
eliminating erroneous zones people may live in joy:
[People who have eliminated their erroneous zones are people]
who like virtually everything about 1ife--people who are
comfortable doing just about anything and who waste no time
in complaining or wishing that things were otherwise . . .
there is . . . a sensible acceptance of what is and an
outlandish ability to delight in that reality (Dyer, 1976,
p. 196).

Minus erroneous zones, individuals are able to lead inner-directed

lives, relying only on themselves for guidance: "Using yourself as

a guide and not needing the approval of an outside force is the most

48

religious experience you can have. It is a veritable religion of the
self . . ." (Dyer, 1976, p. 51).

Dyer's religion of the self is predicated on the idea that
life is short and that people must extract the maximum amount of
pleasure out of a minimal amount of time. As Dyer writes: "Surely
if your sojourn on earth is so brief, it ought at least to be pleasing
to you. In a word, it is your life, do with it what you want"

(Dyer, 1976, p. 8). Maximum pleasure is guaranteed through the
abandonment of self-denial, which Dyer sees as an unnecessary
encumbrance on a happy life. Dyer exhorts his readers to adapt the
following type of behavior:

In a restaurant order something you really enjoy, no matter

what it costs. Give yourself a treat because you are

worth it. Begin to select items that you would prefer in

all situations, including the grocery store. Indulge

yourself with a favorite product because you are worth

it (Dyer, 1969, p. 40).
"You are worth it" is the basic cannon of Dyer's faith in the self,

and it bears the imprimatur of the book buying public which has

accepted Dyer's secular formula with religious fervor.

LookingOut for #1
"My sole reason for writing this book was to make as much
money as possible" (Ringer, 1977, p. 7). So begins Robert Ringer's
book, Looking Out for #1. Known as the author of perhaps the most
aggressive self-help book to be written-~Winning;ThroughIntimidation--
Ringer is direct and to the point, not only in presenting his reason
for writing his latest book, but also in his presentation of his

ideas. "Rational selfishness," he writes," is one of the primary

49

elements in looking out for number 1" (Ringer, 1977, p. 290).
Rational selfishness is precisely what he has packaged in Looking
Out for #1, and, considering sales volume, it is exactly what the
book buying public was searching for.

Robert Ringer's philosophy manages, at one and the same time,
to be both hedonistic and utilitarian: "Looking out for number 1 is
the conscious rational effort to spend as much time as possible doing
those things which bring you the greatest amount of pleasure"
(Ringer, 1977, p. 10). The way to gain the greatest pleasure is by
overcoming obstacles that other people place in the path of happiness.
Ringer calls these obstacles hurdles, and devotes a large portion of
his book advising readers how to overcome the perspective hurdle,
the reality hurdle, the people hurdle, the crusade hurdle, the
financial hurdle, the friendship hurdle, and the love hurdle. The
way to jump each of these hurdles is by "looking out for #1."

As with the works discussed above, Ringer's self-help book
is also predicated on the notion that making a decision is the first
step towards personal change and success. Ringer writes: "Decide
how you want to live your life, then proceed accordingly as though
there were no irrational people to bother you" (Ringer, 1977, p. 116).
At this point, Ringer moves beyond the ideas expounded in Newman and
Berkowitz's best seller concerning the primacy of the self to each
individual, and explicates a theory of total self-centeredness:
"You've cleared the People Hurdle when others have a minimum effect

on your efforts to look out for #1" (Ringer, 1977, p. 118).

50

Minus the cloak of religious or psychological language,
Ringer adopts the language of the market economy. Economic terms
are used in this volume to describe everything from other people to
the adoption of his ideas and the reading of his book. Calculation,
most importantly rational calculation, is the primary tenet of

Looking Out for #1. Ringer does his thesis justice by introducing

 

it into every problem he describes. Several examples illustrate this
point. Ringer, on his book and its audience: "This book . . . is not
an attempt to convert you to my way of thinking: It's a free market
transaction in which I'm exchanging ideas for money" (Ringer, 1977,
p. 138). On other people: "Pay the price of looking around the
People Store, and shop carefully. Buy as many good ones as you can
afford; they'll add untold happiness to your life if you're willing
to deal with them on a value for value basis" (Ringer, 1977, p. 331).
And finally: "Can you buy friendship? You not only can, you must"
(Ringer, 1977, p. 266). To Ringer, exchange value characterizes all
of life; human sentiments and emotions have no role in his market
place.

If this is how Ringer deviates from traditional self-help
works, there are a number of ways in which he is also the bearer of
that same tradition. As mentioned above, the idea that personal
change begins with personal decision, resounds throughout Ringer's
work: "There's one great reality which supersedes all the potential
world-disaster and flappin-in-the-breeze crises. That is the reality
that you can still lead an exciting, fulfilling, joyous life--starting

right now" (Ringer, 1977, p. 158). All that a person need do to live

51

such a life is rationally decide that this is how s/he wants to live.
According to Ringer, it is as simple as that. And if any social
concerns get in the way of self-indulgence, Ringer has a solution for
this too:

Suppose I want to help "the poor." Rather than waste time

getting involved in the muddled bureaucracy of some

organization . . . all I need to do is decide which person

or people I deem to be poor, determine which type of help

would be most effective, then take prompt action .

(Ringer, 1977, p. 131).
Ringer stands in opposition to all group action, and goes so far as
to write that any woman who participates in the women's movement is
"distracting from her own unique abilities" (Ringer, 1977, p. 181).
This position, as all of his positions are, is based on Ringer's
rather crass statement that "life can be a ball-buster" (Ringer, 1977,
p. 64). It is each individual for his/her self, and when the "game"
is over, everyone should have been able to claw their way into first

place--for, after all, that is what Ringer's book is all about--

making #1, number 1.

Born to Win

 

With the appearance of Born to Win on the best seller list,

 

transactional analysis once again took primacy as the most widely
read technique of self-help. Written by Muriel James and Dorothy
Jongeward, who bill themselves as human relations and communication

consultants, Born to Win utilizes the traditional transactional

 

analysis theory as initiated by Eric Berne and, at the same time,
moves beyond Berne's formulation. James and Jongeward's uniqueness

rests in their mutual adaptation of Berne's work and that of Fritz

52

Perls--the father of Gestalt therapy. Each chapter of Born to Win,

 

which is dedicated to Berne who taught both writers, uses the sub-
stantive material of transactional analysis (i.e., ego states, game
playing, etc.), and is supplemented with gestalt experiments that

the reader can do at home. In this way, Born to Win initiates changes
in the literature, but there are a number of themes which find their
echo in this work.

The most familiar theme is uttered early in the book. "Each
is born with the capacity to win at life" is a statement found on the
first page, and it sets the tone for what is to follow. As in all
other self-help books, James and Jongeward's Born to Win emphasizes
the need for awareness: "Aware people can determine the course of
their own life plans and rewrite their dramas in accordance with
their own uniqueness" (James and Jongeward, 1978, p. 106). In con-
cert with Berne and Harris, James and Jongeward believe that awareness
comes from cognizance of ego states. People must know which of their
ego states--Parent, Adult, or Child--is involved in an interaction in
order to alter their behavior. Negative behavior, in keeping with the
metaphor or the title, is defined as a losing streak, and it is pre-

cisely these losing streaks which Born to Win is attempting to snap.

 

To do so means that an individual must change in several ways, the
most important being the acceptance of responsibility for his/her
life. "A person who wants to discover and change a 'losing streak,‘
who wants to become more like the winner he or she was born to be,
can use gestalt type experiments and transactional analysis to make

change happen" (James and Jongeward, 1978, p. 6). Before a person

53

can begin to use these techniques for their benefit, however, s/her
must decide that they control their own lives; they must end the
behavioral pattern that James and Jongeward call "waiting for magical
rescue." How is this change wrought? By making a "contract" with a
therapist or, better yet, with the self.

While maintaining these traditional themes, and introducing
a new psychological technique, there is a more important way in which

Born to Win breaks away from the old notions to embrace the need for

 

social responsibility. After gaining awareness, autonomy, and
authenticity, the results of becoming a "winning" person, the indi-
vidual becomes ethical. An ethical way of living is developed through
the integration of the three ego states, which motivates a person to
"re-evaluate a present value system and design a personal ethical
code" (James and Jongeward, 1978, p. 300). This ethical code creates
a broad framework for action:

An ethical person does not discount problems 0r their

significance, but instead assumes that people can work

together to solve them. An ethical person works on

personal problems, community problems, and such worldwide

problems as those caused by rats and disease . . . (James

and Jongeward, 1978, p. 302).
But becoming ethical is not the focus of James and Jongeward's book;
becoming a winner is. By seeing the individual as the primary
creator of his/her plight, and by according the individual responsi-
bility for being a loser, these authors retain the themes of the
self-help books discussed above. Thus, in the work of James and
Jongeward, self-help gains a new, more worldly dimension; the frame-

work, however, remains essentially unchanged, and the seeds for

analysis are firmly planted.

CHAPTER IV

A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE SELF-HELP BOOKS

To view each of the ten self-help books as separate and
distinct from each other is to overlook the patterns that the works
produce as a totality. Looked at from the persepctive of how these
particular books fit together and express common themes, it is
possible to locate certain trends within the self-help literature
by positing the question: what common elements define a self-help
book? Because it was clear that a book had to include certain
elements in order to be considered a self-help book, these ingredi-
ents have been isolated in each of the books and made into seven
categories. The seven categories are: the approach; the problem;
the cause; the solution; the gratification time; the role of society;
and the societal remedy. The following discussion is a definitional
exposition of each of these categories, and an elaboration of the
content of each category as it has emerged from the ten books under

consideration.

The Approach

 

Every self-help book presents an approach to the social
world. These approaches consist of how particular authors organize

their perceptions of specific problems which confront individuals

54

55

in society. The approach is the organizational framework through
which an author presents his/her philosophy of life. It is the
approach which is the pivotal point from which all other categories
will take their form and content, i.e., it provides the structural
viewpoint which in turn determines the shape of the other categories.
In this way, all of the categories taken together form a relational
web. No category can stand isolated from another; each category
must be seen from the perspective of how it stands in relationship
to the remaining categories. As the rudiments of a philosophy of
life, the categories form a progression, all emanating from the
approach. (Figure 2 depicts the internal relationship and progres-

sion of these categories.)

The Psychological Approach

 

The ten self-help books which I have discussed display two
basic approache5--psychological and religious. Seven of the ten
books--those by Carnegie, Berne, Harris, Dyer, Newman and Berkowitz,
Ringer, and James and Jongeward--utilize a psychological approach.
To say that these books take a psychological approach to the world
means that they focus on the psychic problems which individuals
experience due to a lack of success in their lives. These problems
are seen as being caused by either the negative mental attitudes of
people or by their unhealthy emotional states. According to the
proponents of the psychological approach, the solution to these
problems rests in an individual's ability to choose to change. From

the time an individual chooses to change until the time when that

56

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individual is healed is almost immediate. There is no delay in a
person's choosing to change and in his/her resolution to his/her
private troubles; an individual who chooses to be successful can be.
Authors who ascribe to a psychological approach define society as
either a patient in need of change only after individuals have

been changed; as a victim who has been unjustly blamed for generat-
ing the private troubles of individuals; or as a neutral force
which should remain unchanged. These authors also see the social
remedy for these conditions as being either the transformation of

society or the maintenance of the status quo.

The Religious Approach

Both Fulton Sheen and Norman Vincent Peale take a religious
approach to the world. This approach, as seen in Sheen's work,
consists of a focus on the personal distress which individuals
experience as members of society. People feel personal distress
because of their spiritual separation from Christ. The only way
for people to alleviate their torment is through a reconciliation
with God. This reunification of people with God takes place through
the adoption of religion. By taking a religious approach to the
problems which they experience, individuals delay their gratifica-
tion. Their fulfillment awaits them in heaven as these individuals
seek their eternal rewards. Society, according to the tenets of
the religious approach, has been unjustly indicted as the cause of

individuals problems. Individuals need to change, not societies.

58

The social remedy for people's problems, therefore, is the
maintenance of the status quo.

Although Norman Vincent Peale is initally included as an
advocate of the religious approach because of his reliance on God
as the focus of his discussion, Peale adapts a psychological
perspective almost immediately. The problem to which he addresses
himself is the lack of success that individuals experience in their
lives. Peale sees the casue of this problem as negative mental
attitudes on the part of individuals. If people wish to become
successful, they must choose to change. After adopting Peale's
"dynamic spiritual formula," individuals will have immediate
gratification. The role of society in the individual's life, as
Peale sees it, is that of a neutral force. There need be no social
remedy to the problems which people experience; only the maintenance
of the status quo is required. While religious in tone, Peale is
psychological in approach, and he is subsequently included in all

discussions of the psychological approach.

The Problem and Its Cause

 

All self-help books discuss problems which individuals
experience, and give definitions of the cause of these problems.
Within the ten self-help books being analyzed, two distinct defini-
tions of problem and cause are given. In the psychological books,
the problem is lack of success caused by negative mental attitudes
and unhealthy emotional states. In the religious books, the

problem is personal distress caused by spiritual separation. Both

59

problem and cause are directly connected to the approach from which
they stem, and result from the world view of the author.

Those who take a psychological approach (i.e., Carnegie,
Peale, Berne, Harris, Dyer, Newman and Berkowitz, Ringer, and James
and Jongeward), view the problem of individuals as being their lack
of personal success. Two different conceptions of success can be
found within the eight books that utilize this approach. In
Carnegie, Peale, and Ringer's work, the definition of success is
primarily materialistic. The more money a person makes, the more
successful s/her is. Robert Ringer expressed this when he wrote:
"Money is great; it's great because it rids you of many burdens
which can sap your limited supply of time and energy, thus freeing
you to concentrate on the pleasantries of life" (Ringer, 1977, p.
162). The second definition of success is found in Berne, Harris,
Dyer, Newman and Berkowitz, and James and Jongeward's work. Success
to these authors is an individual's ability to be him/her self.
This is illustrated in a passage from Newman and Berkowitz'sIHgg

To Be Your Own Best Friend:

 

. . when we begin to make available to ourselves our
own possibilities, it is like drilling a well to an
untapped energy reserve, like finding a bank account we
haven't yet used" (Newman and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 89).

This problem is seen as stemming from either a negative
mental attitude or from an unhealthy emotional life. Which cause
the problem is attributed to depends on whether an author gives
primacy to psychic elements or emotional elements. Authors who

see lack of success as resulting from negative mental attitudes

60

believe that people cause themselves to fail because they do not
believe in their ability to succeed. According to Carnegie, Peale,
Newman and Berkowitz, Dyer, Ringer, and James and Jongeward, people
inflict a self-fulfilling prophecy on themselves.

Wayne Dyer expresses this as "People are unhappy because
they have chosen to be unhappy" (Dyer, 1976, p. 63). Those authors
who see the problems of individuals as the result of their unhealthy
emotional states believe that individuals lack success because they
have decided that they are not as "good" as other people. Berne
and Harris believe that people are not successful because they have
decided that they are not capable of being successful. Individuals
who decide this are emotionally unhealthy and physically self-
destructive.

For the proponent of the religious approach, Sheen, the
problem which individuals experience is personal distress, and the
cause of this problem is spiritual separation. People have become
atheistic in their conceptions of the world, and they therefore
live under conditions of constant personal trouble. The personal
distress which the religious approach is talking about is the
inability of individuals to be a peace with themselves. People are
constantly troubled by feelings of guilt and anxiety because they
are not filled with God's presence and purpose. Secularism has
gained primacy over religiosity, and people show more concern with
their position in the present world than in gaining salvation in

the next.

61

The Solution and Gratification Time

Authors of books that utilize a psychological approach tell
people that choosing to change is the solution to their problems.
This decision to change rests on an individual's ability to make
this choice. People must become aware of the fact that they cause
their own lack of success because they have cultivated and now
carefully nurture negative mental attitudes and unhealthy emotional
states. The only solution to this problem and its cause is to
choose to change. Individuals transform themselves through choice,
for as Wayne Dyer stated: "You are the sum total of your choices"
(Dyer, 1976, p. 3). Becoming a successful person demands that an
individual take the necessary steps to personal transformation.

The choice to put an end to self-defeating behavior is, according
to these self-help books, the most important decision a person can
make.

As soon as a person is able to change his/her mental attitude
or his/her emotional state, then s/he can become successful. People
lack success because they have chosen to be failures. The continua-
tion of self-defeating behavior illustrates this. When people alter
their mental outlook and change their emotional behavior, they
reverse the direction of their previously negative self-fulfilling
prophecy.

People do not have to wait to see the results which these
changes create. According to the authors, the rewards of change

can be seen almost immediately after a person has made a choice.

62

There is no delay between decision and reward. Individuals
experience immediate gratification from their decision and begin to
become successful. In order to document this immediacy of success,
authors relate stories of various people who have adapted their
formulas. Carnegie, Peale, and Dyer are particularly fond of this
approach, and a large portion of their books are given over to
stories about people who were once failures, but who have now been
able to achieve success through the respective author's formulas.
The formula is simplistic in its depiction of problem and solution.
If a person lacks success, it is because s/he has chosen to fail.
This lack of success can be remedied by choosing to be successful.
The choice to succeed makes people "winners."

The religious approach, as discussed above, posits the
problem of individuals as the absence of God in their lives. This
problem can be alleviated through religion. Individuals who
embrace religion are able to overcome their spiritual separation
from God. Therefore, they are also able to alleviate their feelings
of depression, guilt, and anxiety, which are caused by this separa-
tion. Persons who fill themselves with Christ's presence by the
acceptance of religion are able to rid themselves of feelings of
personal distress. Through religion, individuals find peace with
themselves, and are able to live their lives to the fullest as
soldiers of Christ.

But the rewards of religion are not essentially those
found on earth. The most important reward that an individual gains

from becoming religious is delayed until that persons's death. The

63

ultimate reward is eternal life. Individuals who change their
lives by becoming religious must defer gratification of their
keenest desire. The progression from problem to solution and
gratification does not happen as quickly in the religious self-help
books as it does in psychological ones. According to the adherents
of the religious approach, however, deferred gratification for
eternal life in peace does not diminish its quality.

The amount of time that a self-help technique needs to be
utilized before it brings the individual some type of gratification
is essential to the very nature of the self-help formula being
advocated. Psychologically oriented books present readers with the
idea that their problems can be solved, and their lives totally
changed, almost immediately. The promise of instant gratification
is part of the total formula of the books, and provides an insight
into the popularity of the psychological self-help books since the
mid 19605. In the broader culture, people are constantly being
presented with images of immediate gratification; television com-
mercials and programs provide the perfect example (Horkheimer and
Adorno, 1944, pp. 120-67). Immediate satisfaction is part of the
overall product which is being sold, whether the commodity is
instant cameras, instant breakfasts, or instant self-help. In
part, this probably accounts for the continued popularity of these
books. People read one book and achieve some kind of gratification.
But they still do not feel completely satisfied. 50 they read

another book, which again promises immediate gratification. This

64

could explain the succession of psychological self-help books on
the best seller list.

The popularity of religious self-help books during the
19505 speaks to the clear distinction between that decade and the
two to follow. Religious literature of all types (fiction and
non-fiction), achieved tremendous popularity and success during
the 19505, and this fact has been pointed out in a summary discus-
sion of patterns of best selling books in the 1954 Edition of
The World Almanac and Book of Facts. The delayed gratification,
which is an explicit part of the religious solution, is character-
istic of a much more patient populace, and more befits the
cultural mood of the 19505. Even with this clear divergence of
view in religious and psychological self-help books, it should be
pointed out that, within the approaches, the books themselves are

internally consistent, and their definitions follow neat patterns.

Role of Society and Societal Remedy

The role of society category is used to define how the
psychological and religious approaches depict society. It is
important to explore the role given to society by self-help books
because it is in their definitons of society that it becomes clear
just who or what is responsible for the problems that people
experience. If society were given responsibility for people's
private troubles, there would be no concept of self-help, but
rather one of social help. Political action leading to social

transformation would be the focus of people's attention. Publics

65

would replace masses, and private troubles would be defined as
public issues. Clearly, this is not the case. Self interest and
personal change are the foci of self-help books. Society is not
responsible for people's problems; the people who experience those
problems are responsible.

There are three basic views of society presented in the
psychological and religious self-help books. The psychological
approach evidences all three positions, while the religious
approach has only one notion of the role of society. The three
roles attributed to society are: soceity as a neutral force;
society as patient; and, society as the victim of private troubles.
All three will first be explained as part of the psychological
approach; the third position will be dealt with again as a part of
the religious approach.

One role that psychological self-help books give to society
is that of a neutral force. People are seen as inhabitants of a
society, but society is given neither a positive nor a negative
relationship with the individual. Society is seen as a benign
entity in which people exist. Society does not cause the problems
which pe0ple experience; it has absolutely no role in the creation
or maintenance of private troubles. This position is advocated by
Carnegie and Peale and is in keeping with the definition of the
problem, the cause, the solution, and gratification time which
their books present. Individuals are responsible for their lack
of success because they have negative mental attitudes. If people

would choose to change, their problems would be immediately solved.

66

As Peale stated "The essence of the secret (peace of mind) lies in
a change of mental attitude" (Peale, 1952, p. 27). Society does
not fit into this formula at all; and this is because society has
no role in a person's life.

A second role is allocated to society in other books that
take a psychological approach to social reality. This role con-
ceives of a society as patient and is given in Dyer and James and
Jongeward's books. The idea of society presented here is gpt_that
society is sick and causes people to develop individual pathologies.
Rather, individual and society are both patients. Individuals need
self-help, and after they have healed themselves, they may apply the
techniques of self-help to society. Society's ills, according to
James and Jongeward, are the prevalence of disease and rat infesta-
tion. It is not public issues masquerading as private troubles that
these psychological works are addressing when they define society
as a patient. The individual and the society remain as divorced
from each other in this perspective as they are in the view of
society as a neutral force. The difference is that in giving
society the role of patient, some adherents to the psychological
approach acknowledge some defects in society and believe that if
individuals can become healed, they can then change the faults of
society.

A third role attributed to society by psychological self-
help authors Berne, Harris, Newman and Berkowitz, and Ringer, is

that of society as the victim of private troubles. This view

67

advances the position that society has been unjustly blamed for the
problems that individuals experience. Soceity has been victimized
by those who are unwilling to admit that individuals cause them-
selves to be failures. People have been reluctant to take responsi-
bility for their own lives, and have therefore pointed to society
as the cause of their troubles. This position represents an inver-
sion of C. Wright Mills' formulation, and is a plea for the trans-
formation of public issues into private troubles. Individuals must
become aware of the fact that they can solve their problems by
choosing to change their emotional lives. If people continue to
blame society for their problems, they will continue to fail. This
was succinctly expressed by Newman and Berkowitz when they stated:
"We are accountable only to ourselves for what happens to us in our
lives" (Newman and Berkowitz, 1971, p. 22). Underlying this idea
of the role of society is the notion that society is a neutral
force which has no negative impact on people's lives.

This same role of society as the victim of private troubles
can be found in the religious self-help books. The religious
approach defines that society has been victimized by God-less people.
Because individuals are atheistic, they have feelings of personal
distress. Individuals attribute these feelings to society's
pathology. What people have failed to realize is that they have
caused their own distress because they are spiritually separated
from God. Social change will not redress their negative feelings;

only religion can. Therefore, people who look to society as the

68

locus of their problem continue to be blind to the spiritual void
in their lives. Society has been falsely accused of a crime it
has not committed. It is the individual who must be put on trial,
not the social order.

According to Fulton Sheen, the conditions of society have
been falsely accused of causing the malaise of the contemporary
world. The problems of society, as Sheen explains, are the problems
of the individuals who live God-less lives. Social change will not
improve poeples' lives; personal change will. Only an individual
conversion to a life of God can make people satisfied with their
lives.

Just as each of the approaches gives a role to society,
they also provide society with a remedy. The societal remedy can
be seen as the position an approach takes to the role of society--
it responds to the issue of what is to be done with a society that
is neutral, patient or victim. The psychological approach presents
two societal remedies: maintaining the status quo, or social
change. If society is a neutral force, as Carnegie and Peale
depict it, then the prescription which is given is to remain at
status quo. The remedy here is homeostasis; society should remain
constant, individuals should change. As Carnegie wrete: "Everybody
in the world is seeking happiness-~and there is one way to find it.
That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on
outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions" (Carnegie,

1977, p. 74). Because society is not responsible for people's

69

problems, there is no need for structural transformation. There is
a need for personal remedy in the shape of a self-help book.

Those psychological self-help books which view society as
a patient present a societal remedy of social change. As defined
by Dyer and James and Jongeward, this remedy is to be applied only
after individuals have been able to become successful. It is a
prescription for social change after individual change. What this
remedy is ggt is a plan or strategy for structural transformation.
Certain problems exist in society which can be redressed by
individuals who are free of erroneous zones or "born to win;" but
these problems are not fundamental ones which call for political
action. This societal remedy is a call to make society "a winner,"
to apply the techniques of self—help to society. A healthy society
is one which has stopped being a loser.

For the psychological self-help books that see society as
the victim of private troubles, the societal remedy is maintenance
of the status quo. According to Berne, Harris, Newman and Berkowitz,
and Ringer, people must stop trying to change society, and must look
to themselves as the cause of their failure. Society does not need
to be "operated" on; individuals do. If people would stop blaming
society for their problems and embrace a remedy for their individual
troubes. then they would be on the road to success. Harris
illustrated this point when he wrote "the problems of the world . . .
are . . . essentially the problems of individuals" (Harris, 1967,

p. 17). This neutral society must be left in its present state.

Individuals are sick; not society.

70

The only societal remedy offered in religious self—help
books is the need for retaining the status quo. Society has been
faulted for problems which really exist in individuals. According
to Fulton Sheen, people call for revolution and they really need
revelation. This need for revelation is an individual remedy.
Society itself should not be changed. Since it is really a neutral
force which has been victimized, society should be left as it is.
"The tormented minds of today," wrote Sheen, "are not the effects
of our tormented world; it is our upset minds that have upset the
world" (Sheen, 1954, p. 244). Clearly individuals themselves must
change their views on why they feel distressed, and then must
discover the solution to their private troubles in God. The society
itself is benign; its structures and functions harmless.

Status quo as a societal remedy reflects the position of
self-help books that it is private solutions that are needed to
change people; not social action to change society. Even the
psychological books which call for social change make this need
not an imperative, but another application of self-help. Nowhere
does structural transformation become a societal remedy needed to
redress public issues currently hidden as private troubles. From
the point of critique, this is the most important statement which
self-help books make--it is individuals that need solutions, not
societies that need remedies. If society was given responsibility
for the plight of individuals, then self-help books would be manuals

for political change. Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals would

71

replace Robert Ringer's Looking Out For #1, and the thesis of the

decade would be social change instead of self absorption.

Conclusion

 

The above presentation has been a thematic analysis of the
content of the self-help books. But at this point the level of
discussion must be shifted from the books themselves to the role of
the books in society. It is here that the definitions that the
books hold can be seen as ideological. The marketing of public
issues as private troubles is a latent function of these books.
But this function becomes manifest when placed in the broader
spectrum of society. Individuals are buying the notions that
these approaches sell. People believe that they make themselves
failures, and that they cause their own distress. Society is able
to escape critique because it is seen as having no part in the
private troubles of individuals. How the self-help industry is
able to produce and maintain this false consciousness is the topic

of the next chapter.

CHAPTER V

THE REFINEMENT OF ALIENATION: MODERN
SOCIETY AND SELF-HELP BOOKS

Ours is a time of uneasiness and indifference—-not yet

formulated in such ways as to permit the work of reason

and the play of sensibility. Instead of troubles--

defined in terms of values and threats--there is often

the misery of vague uneasiness; instead of explicit

issues there is often merely the beat feeling that

all is somehow not right (Mills, 1959, p. 11).

So wrote C. Wright Mills twenty years ago and, although

the decade between the one in which Mills wrote and the one in
which I am writing saw the formulation of troubles and issues, the
fusion of the personal and the political, in the 19705 Mills' words
still aptly describe contemporary society. Isolated from a sense
of community, ignorant of the social forces which control them,
impotent in the face of bureaucratic rationality, modern individuals
search for some truth upon which they can base their lives. Reared
on an ideology which proclaimed that any person who tried could
succeed, that anyone could lift themselves up by their bootstraps,
people blame the malaise they feel on themselves. If a person
feels unhappy, if they are not as successful as they would like,

s/he looks for a private solution to their troubles. Today, more

often than not, that solution takes the form of a self-help book.

72

73

When people turn to self-help books, it is because they feel

a certain amount of uneasiness about their personal lives. People
feel that they are not in control of what is happening to them;
their destinies have taken on undesired contours. Thus, individuals
look to see what they can change about themselves, and seek guidance
from experts. At this point, they are ready to endorse the way in
which self-help authors define the world, and are willing to embrace
their solutions. In search of meaning and happiness, these readers
are also looking to create a sense of stability in their lives.
But the stability they want is not one which society can provide,
it is not a permanency of social order that people want; rather,
it is a stability of self which they seek. In the act of reading
self-help books, individuals hope to achieve a metamorphosis of
personality and to conceive new identities. What people are looking
for in these books is nothing less than themselves. Berger, Berger,
and Kellner, in documenting the impact of modernization on conscious-
ness, provide an insight into why identity has become such a central
concern:

Only in the interstitial areas left vacant . . . by the

institutions . . . can the individual hope to discover

or define himself. Identity cease to be an objectively

and subjectively given fact, and instead becomes the

goal of an often devious and difficult quest. Modern

man almost inevitably, it seems, is ever in search of

himself (Berger, Berger, and Kellner, 1974, p. 94).
In self-help books, s/he finds completely packaged identities.

74
The Packaging of Public Issues
as Private Troubles

From Dale Carnegie to Muriel James and Dorothy Jongeward,
self-help authors have marketed an image of the individual based on
freedom from social constraints and freedom of personal choice.

The keystone of this packaged self is the notion that individuals
control their own lives. Not just some people not just the privi-
ledged or wealthy, but all people shape their destinies. It is
neither happenstance, nor an unintentional by-product of the
literature, that this theme has been uniformly expressed in all
ten of the self-help books discussed in Chapter II and III. In a
systematic and methodical fashion, all of the authors assign people
the ability, as Wayne Dyer states, to "be anything (they) choose"
(Dyer, 1976, p. 4). Expressing this credo of choice and personal
ability to gain any desired ends is the 'raison d'etre' of self-
help books, in that they are meant to redress the feelings of
helplessness plaguing modern Americans and to locate the cure for
that "feeling that all is somehow not right" in the individual.

All self-help books are aimed at alleviating private
troubles. The message they hold for readers comes across loudly
and clearly: If success, happiness, pleasure, or fulfillment are
evading a person; if life has taken an unexpected direction causing
guilt, worry, fatigue, and depression, then a solution needs to be
found; and that solution exists ready made in the formula of self-
help books. Whatever the problem an individual has can be taken

care of by deciding to change. There are no social constraints on

75

a person's available range of choices: no choice exists outside
the graps of the individual. No problem exists outside the purview

of personal choice.

The Undersocialized Conception of People12

Securely focused on the individual, self—help books locate
few problems in the realm of society, and few self-help books
acknowledge social problems at all. Public issues, where mentioned,
are relegated to a secondary position, to be dealt with after a
person has become capable of controlling his/her life. The society.
and individuals are defined as existing outside of society; society
is no longer seen as "sui generis"--peop1e are. In the world of
self-help books it is not social being which creates consciousness;
rather, it is consciousness which creates individual being.

This attempt by self-help authors to produce asocial
individuals is in keeping with the broader goals of their books.
Approach, problem, means, and ends are all defined by way of
personal parameters. No author gives primacy to the idea that
individuals are socially embedded beings. There is no acknowledg-
ment of the social fact which Horkeimer, in his essay "The Concept
of Man," stated:

. . . The individual is real only as part of the whole

to which he belongs. His essential determinations, his
character and inclination, his avocation and view of the
world all have their origin in society and in his destiny
within society (Horkheimer, 1974, p. 9-10).

In the realm of self-help books, the individual is real only inasmuch

as s/he transcends the whole and belongs only to the self.

76

"Essential determination, character and inclination, avocation and
view of the world" all have their origin in the decision to become
inner-directed. The macrocosm that is society and the microcosm
that is the individual become inverted. The individual now takes
on macro proportions, and the society becomes merely a microcosm
of personal concerns.

In making public issues private troubles, self-help authors
insists on charging individuals with the responsibility for problems
which palgue them. Fulton Sheen, in Life is Worth Living, made this
point the strongest when he wrote:

If the troubles of our world are outside us socially and

economically-~we shall have to submit to a cruel fate

indeed. If the trouble with the world lies inside the

human heart, then it is possible to remedy all that

trouble (Sheen, 1953, p. 27).
Keeping with the spirit of all of his work, Sheen sees the cure to
these troubles as the acceptance of God. The psychologically
oriented self-help authors agree with Sheen's location of the
problem within the individual but contest the solution. For these
other writers, the remedy rests not in becoming God centered, but
rather in become self centered. Thomas Harris captured this
when he wrote:

. . . education about behavior through an easy-to-under-

stand system like P-A-C (ego states) could well be the

most important thing we can do to solve the problems which

beset us and threaten to destroy us. . . . In some

way . . . we have to make some kind of break in the

relentless march of the generations toward insanity or

other forms of self-destruction which originate in
childhood (Harris, 1969, p. 190).

77

What Harris is arguing is that the problems of the world are really
the problems of the individuals, and that if each person could come
to grips with their childhood experiences and develop as a strong
Adult, then those problems would disappear.

Although Sheen and Harris' definitions are commonplace in
the world of self-help literature, and represent the view that
society is the victim of private troubles, juxtaposed against the
writings of C. Wright Mills, their assumptions become somewhat
questionable. Mills' view of contemporary society proves enlighten-
ing:

. men do not usually define the troubles they endure

in terms of historical change and institutional contra-

diction. The well-being they enjoy, they do not usually

impute to the big ups and downs of the societies in

which they live. Seldom aware of the intricate connec-

tion between the patterns of their own lives and the

course of world history, ordinary men do not usually

know what the connection means . . . They cannot cope

with their personal troubles in such a way as to con-

trol the structural transformations which lie behind

them (Mills, 1959, p. 3-4).
Yet it is precisely these structural transformations which produce
those vague feelings of uneasiness in individuals that self-help
books market as private troubles. Telling examples of this process
are given in all of the books which view society as the victim of
private troubles.

By dichotomizing the world in such a way as to pose a
simplistic problem-solution remedy to complex, interconnected
reality, self-help books have been able to screen people from the

truth of social facts and also to perpetuate the self-help industry.

78

Is society blocking people's ability to be intimate? Then the
treatment is to discover which ego state is malfunctioning in an
interaction. 00 people who are poor give a person cause to think?
Then give a person money and s/he will be able to overcome their
poverty. Is the world becoming rat and disease infested? Then
become aware of the fact that all people are "born to win," and
start changing those conditions.

If after reading the Games People Play an individual still
feels incapable of game-free living, then they can buy another self-
help book, analyze their life position, and decide to become "0k."
It is a cycle, although certainly not a vicious one for authors or
publishing companies, which is able to remain in constant motion.
People buy self-help books because they have a gnawing feeling that
all is not right in their private universes--the book tells them to
decide to change and that joy, love, and sexual gratification will
be theirs. But after a few weeks the "good news" of one volume
wears off. Not to worry; there are a horde of books just waiting
to be devoured, eager to give advice to the psychically hungry
public. So the cycle goes on, increasing production to keep up
with consumption, and, producing in its wake an apparatus that is
based on the fetishism of commodities. It is a game that will never
end, for as long people keep buying self-help books, as long as
they keep looking at themselves as the key to the malaise they

feel, the longer society will escape scrutiny.

79

The Perversion of Real Life

It is a sociologically interesting fact that a society
characterized as alienated, anomic, and abstract would produce a
literary form whose message is so discrepant with social reality.
Predicated on the notion that individuals shape their lives through
freedom of choice, that the decisions to change begins a process
which will culminate in success, and that social change, where it
is needed, can be guided by people who are "born to win," self-help
books produce an illusionary view of society. These books argue
that consciousness creates being. Readers gorge themselves on this
idea, only to be swallowed up by social forces which remain
inexplicably omnipotent.

Theodor W. Adorno, in his article "Society," attempted to
account for the growth of cultural industries following World War
II. In that article he wrote:

The cement which once ideologies supplied is now
furnished by these phenomena (cultural industries),
which hold massive social institutions together on
the one hand, the psychological constituions of human
beings on the other. If we were looking for an ideo-
logical justification of a situation in which men are
little better than cogs to their own machines, we might
claim without much exaggeration that present-day human
beings serve as such an ideology in their own existence,
for they seek of their own free will to perpetuate what
is obviously a perversion of real life (Adorno, 1969-
1970, pp. 152-153).
Nowhere is the condition of modern individuals drawn so explicitly
as in this quote by Adorno. Yet, in the case of self-help books

Adorno's portrait could be extended even further, for in these

80

works the psychological constitutions of human beings are not only
held together, but they are also produced.

The possibility for this production of psychological
constitutions developed historically when industrialization took
place. At this point, as discussed in Chapter One, the pursuit of
personal interest was relegated to the private sphere. With the
division of private life from public life, personal endeavors took
on a hitherto unknown importance, and the pursuit of personality
gained cultural ascendance. Zaretsky describes the ramification
of the split this way:

Introspection intensified and deepened as people sought

in themselves the only coherence, consistency, and unity

capable of reconciling the fragmentation of social life

(Zaretsky, 1976, p. 66).
Cut off from exhibiting any type of individuality in the world of
work the development of self became a valid leisure time pursuit.
In time, however, this interest in the self evolved an importance
beyond the realm of leisure. What had previously been seen as a
pleasant way to spend time off from work became an all engrossing
endeavor, an encompassing task. In its most extreme form, it is
known as "looking out for #1:" in its more moderate form, it has
been called "becoming your own best friend." No matter what name
this development has been given, it is all part of a more general
phenomenon known as the "new narcissism." One of the most familiar
facets of the "new narcissism" has been the growth of a "cult of

personality." Most readily seen in the contemporary notion of

celebrity, this preoccupation with the self represents the most

81

perverse form of the ideology of individualism, upon which this
country was founded. It is also the most characteristic representa-
tion of what is happening in America in the 19705. Peter Marin,

in an article written for Harper's magazine, depicted the mood this
way:

. . the world view emerging (at this time is) centered
solely on the self and (has) individual survival as its
sole good. It is a world view present not only in every-
thing (said) or (done), but as an ambiance, a feeling in
the air, a general cast of perception and attitude; a
retreat from the worlds of morality and history, an
unembarrassed denial of human reciprocity and community
(Marin, 1975, p. 46).

The Self-Help Industry

 

One of the most essential ingredients for producing a
populace infatuated with different images of the self, instead of
being infuriated by the society which forces people to seek private
solutions to social disorders, has been the self-help industry.

Beginning with the publication of How to Win Friends and Influence

 

Eggplg_forty years ago, and continuing today, a vast industrial
network has sprung up around the concept of self-help. In part,
this phenomenon can be attributed to the growth of the economy;

for as capitalism has evolved, and the private and public spheres
have become more disparate, new psychological needs have been
produced. Extended from the satiation of material needs to psychic
needs, entrepreneurs of the self have created a whole new industry
around these needs; an industry whose commodity is images of the
self (Lasch, 1979, p. 75). With the growth of this industry

through the proliferation of self-help books, self-help events, and

82

self-help celebrities, there arises certain fundamental questions
about both the nature of the industry and the nature of the society
that produced such as an industry.

Perhaps the most crucial of these to be answered relates to
Fulton Sheen's asertion that it would be a cruel fate if the
problems of individuals were looked at as problems of the world.
More pertinent to American society is the question--how much more
cruel is it to define social problems as individual difficulties
and create a market based on this charade?

Analyzed from the perspective of an economic system, the
self-help industry follows a classic fOrmulation of production,
consumption, and distribution. The commodity, however, is not an
ordinary one; for it is people that are commodities in this
industry--precisely, it is images of people. Produced by psycholo-
gists, theologians, psychoanalysts, and human relations experts,
these images are consumed by individuals who are in search of
identity, intimacy, stability, and success. Although the commodity
of the self is extraordinary in this sense, it is also very ordinary
and, like all other commodities in capitalist societies, in that
the self takes on a fetishized character.

Self-help books are commodities in two ways: first, by
virtue of their sale to readers; and secondly, by way of the image
of self which self-help authors produce, which readers then turn
into commodities for sale on the personality market. This is not
to say that self-help books do not have a use value. Clearly they

do, for the formulas presented in these books are used by people

83

in order to become more God-centered or to gain psychic health for
personal comfort. Self-help books quickly take on the secondary
type of exchange value, however, when their espoused goal becomes
financial success for their reader; or when, regardless of the
author's intent, the reader turns self-help techniques into market-
able qualities. By following the guidelines set down in these
books, people believe that they can become financially successful,
if not wealthy. Adapting instrumental attitudes toward other people
and quantifying all relations are both means for achieving this
success. What remains hidden to consumers of self-help books is
that in taking part in this exchange, they are part of a process of
fetishization and reification; a process which their awareness

techniques could not possibly have sensitized them to.

Fetishism and Reification in Self-Help Books

Self-help books are fetishized to the extent which people
conceive of themselves as in a relationship with the techniques
and formulas being marketed in these works. To the degree to which
they believe themselves to be relating to the authors of the books,
individuals are taking part in the process of reification. The
hallmark of both fetishism and reification is what Marx called
their "mystical characteristic." In the world of self-help books,
people read authors who they feel provide the proper cure, and
thus these authors appear mystical. Techniques also take on a
mystical character because they appear not as the product of

people but as fool-proof systems for gaining happiness. Finally,

84

an individual's personality also appears mystical when it becomes
a marketable commodity, competing against other personalities in
the economic sphere. In History and Class Consciousness, Lukacs
attempted to explain this phenomena:
The transformation of the commodity relation into a
thing of "ghostly objectivity" cannot therefore content
itself with the reduction of all objects for the grati-
fication of human needs to commodities. It stamps its
imprint upon the wole consciousness of man; his qualities
and abilities are no longer an organic part of his
personality, they are things which he can 'own' or
'dispose of' like the various objects of the external
world (Lukacs, 1967, p. 100).
Instead of producing an awareness of reification, self-help books
produce reification of awareness. This is done in two ways:
through the presentation of religion as psychology. and psychology

as religion.

Religion as Psycholggy

To Fulton Sheen and Norman Vincent Peale the troubles which
haunt modern invididuals are central. Most commonly cited are A
those problems which become, in the 19705, the trademark of "pop
psychologists," whose trade it is to analyze the world for popular
periodicals. Guilt, anxiety, and worry head this list of personal
traumas, and Sheen and Peale do their best to quell their triumph
in everyday life. The formula utilized by both Sheen and Peale is
a simple one. The problems which they are dealing with are called
by psychological names; the solutions offered are couched in
religious terms. Examples of this technique abound in both writer's

work: "The greatest secret for eliminating the inferiority complex,

85

which is another term for self doubt, is to fill your mind to
overflowing with faith" (Peale, 1952, p. 17). And, "This fundamental
anxiety cannot be cured by a surrender to passions and instincts;

the basic cause of our anxiety is a restlessness within time which
comes because we are made for eternity" (Sheen, 1954, p. 29).

This psychological aspect of religion has been one of its
greatest attractions throughout history. Religion creates a secure
sense of right and wrong for the individual, and assures a person
that if all is not right with the present world, then assuredly
eternity holds forth a better prospect. Rollo May, in Man's Search
for Himself, explained some of the function that religion plays in
the life of an individual:

. religion is constructive as it strengthens the

person in his sense of his own dignity and worth, aids

him in his conficence that he can affirm values in life,

and helps him in the use and development of his own

ethical awareness, freedom and personal responsibility

(May, 1973, p. 205).
But if psychologist May speaks favorably of the impact of religion
on people, and goes so far as to include it in a psychological
analysis of modern society, psychologists Gross and Vitz are less

than pleased with the religious tones that modern psychological

works have taken on.

Psychology as Religion
Thomas Harris called his book "the good news" of how people
can change their lives. Wayne Dyer defined the techniques for
abandoning erroneous zones "a veritable religion of the self," and

Newman and Berkowitz said that their book was intended to help

86

people understand their lives, and likened that to the appeal of
religion. These are just three examples of a trend which is
attempting to make psychology the religion of the modern world.

Two recent publications, Martin Gross' The Psychological Society

 

and Paul Vitz's Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship
speak in thundering disdain of this development. Gross' comment
succinctly summarizes the view of both men: "To egocentric modern
man, the prospect (If Self instead of God seated at the center of
a world philosophical system is exquisitely attractive" (Gross,
1978, p. 14). Both of these authors are psychologists who stand
in solid opposition to the "pop psychologist" of the "human poten-
tial" genre. Gross singles out Berne and Harris for particular
verbal whipping, while Vitz focuses his sights on the people whom
he views as the precursors to Berne and Harris; namely, Fromm,
Maslow, May, and Rogers. Both men, however, are equally angry at
this literary form which invokes the cannon of science to legitimate
its theological message. Neither author believes that self-help
books are scientific, because they lack operational definitions
and precise conceptualizations.
The critique of these books is best presented by Gross

when he writes:

The human growth movement is blatantly romantic. It

insists each of us has within us the potential for emotional

stability and happiness. By calling on humanistic techniques

we not only will grow emotionally but will find our authen-

ticity. If the individual can be self-actualized, he will,
in a new theological sense, be saved (Gross, 1978, p. 298).

87

For Gross, the reason for the growth of a self-help industry
can be found historically within the field of psychOIOQY; it is
Sigmund Freud who must bear the burden of responsibility for the
contemporary absorption with self. Vitz sees a more social reason
for these developments: I'The popularization of selfism is attribut-
able in large part to the recent period of rapid economic growth
in an already wealthy and secularized society" (Vitz, 1977, p. 105).
While Vitz urges the return to theology, and Gross argues for a
more traditional psychology, neither writer explores self-help

books as tools of cultural hegemony.

Self-Help Books As Hegemonic
Originally coined by Antonio Gramsci, the term hegemony
describes the diffusion of ruling class ideology throughout society.
Because Gramsci's Prison Notebooks hold scattered pieces of his
writing, Carl Boggs' interpretation of Gramsci's concept is more
useful for citation, and is worth quoting at some length. Boggs,

in his book Gramsci's Marxism, wrote:

 

By hegemony Gramsci meant the permeation throughout
civil society--including a whole range of structures
and activities like trade unions, schools, the churches,
and the family--of an entire system of values, atti-
tudes, beliefs, morality, etc., that is in one way or
another supportive of the established order and the
class interests that dominate it. Hegemony in this
sense might be defined as an 'organizing principle,‘
or world view . . . that is diffused by agencies of
ideological control and socialization into every area
of life (Boggs, 1976, p. 39).

Self-help books act as hegemonic forces in a number of

ways. As discussed above, in focusing people's attention on their

88

private troubles, society is largely ignored. This is crucial
because if people were to begin to look at society as the cause
of personal troubles; if misfortunes once again became defined as
injustices, then there would be social upheaval. Relegated to the
world of psychological discomforts, problems which are structurally
produced remain items for psychic consumption. Those writers that
do include some notion of society usually do so within the confines
of the status quo. The most telling example of this was provided
by Dale Carnegie:

The next time you are in a strange city, stop someone who

is below you in the economic and social scale and say “I

wonder if you would mind helping me out of a little diffi-

culty. Won't you please tell me how to get to such and

such a place?" (Carnegie, 1977, pp. 221-222).
Implied in Carnegie's advice is the idea that this person is
responsible for his/her position and could be made to feel important
by offering directions to someone "better." Society is not called
into question; people are not instructed to ask what social
constraints led to their position in the stratified social order.
Each person can make him/herself a success; each person is responsible
for not doing so.

Ideologically, self-help books perpetuate the American
belief in individualism. Responsibility for life rests entirely
with the individual. It is the individual who makes the choices
which define his/her existence and thus it is the individual who
must be blamed for failure or congratulated for success. For these

authors, their focus on the individual never sways: it is individ-

uals who feel guilt, anxiety, and unhappiness, so it is these

89

individuals who must redress their troubles. The fact that self-
help books market a narcissistic form of individualism to numerous
people does not matter; these people never form a collectivity.

And this is precisely what aids society in perpetuating the status
quo--lone individuals attempting to rid themselves of feelings of
malaise know that they feel unhappy so they consume self-help books
which tell them they really are not trying very hard to be happy.
It takes hard work and a decisive move to become happy and success-
ful, and with the proper amount of exertion, anyone can be. The
message is vintage America. It is bought by countless number of
individuals who believe that all they need to succeed is the right
formula. It is as easy as step one through ten laid out by Peale
and Carnegie, or as easy as paying one through ten dollars for the

evasive happiness they seek.

Language as Metaphor

Another way in which self-help books act as hegemonic
forces is through the language they use. At one point or another,
most of the books use sports analogies to depict life. Peale's
statement is typical: "Perhaps you have not been doing so well in
the game of life. Perhaps you stand up to bat and cannot make a
hit. You strike out time and again, and your batting average is
lamentably low . . ." (Peale, 1952, p. 96). By using these
analogies, writers can trivialize people's problems and once again
distract attention from society. If life is only a game, if it is

something which people either win or lose at, then life becomes

90

an either-or proposition. Either each person tries to win or else
they are doomed to lose. If a person loses, it is no ones fault
but their own--they have not prepared adequately to be winners in
the game of life. If an individual wins at life, it means that
they have become haPPY; they have achieved fulfillment. In this
use of language, it becomes evident that behind the dichotomy of
winning and losing, stands the more traditional notions of success
and failure; ideas which go to the very root of American ideology

and become entwined with the belief in individualism.

Inauthenticity

 

There is yet another way in which self-help books maintain
the status quo, and that is by appearing to respond to peoples'
needs. This is where the contradictions of capitalist society
appear most readily. It is clear, both from the magnitude of sales
and the eagerness with which people embrace these formulas, that
self-help books are filling some need that the populace feels.

The fact that these needs develop in response to social reality

is ignored. Nor is it pointed out that the psychology once

intended to support individuals has turned into a device to maintain
the very social conditions which originally gave rise to their
distress. But self-help books are attempting to reinstate the

acting subject into life, and in this way they are responding to

an existing void. Dominated by bureaucracies, defeated by powerless-
ness, and devastated by alienation, modern individuals feel that

they are not directing their own lives. Self-help books tell people

91

that they can control their lives by changing their mental attitudes,
that they need not feel overwhelmed any longer. By keeping people's
sight on their private reactions to domination, however, self-help
books represent an inauthentic response to public issues.

Defined by Amitai Etzioni in The Active Society, inauthenti-
city occurs when: "A relationship, institution, or society . . .
provides the appearance of responsiveness while the underlying
condition is alienating“ (Etzioni, 1968, p. 619). Through the
industry of self-help books, society, or at least some facet of
soceity, appears to respond to peoples' needs. The important
question here, however, is what needs are being acknowledged, in
what way, and to the exclusion of what other needs? A corollary
to this first series of questions is: what shape do these
responses take?

It is clear from what has been said before that the needs
that self-help authors respond to are purely personal ones; and
these needs are the demise of anxiety, guilt, and worry. These
purely personal needs are given similar remedies--the private
alleviation of socially induced problems. Totally ignored in this
application of solution-to-problem is the "intersection between
biography and history" so essential to locating people within a
social fabric (Mills, 1959, p. 3). As a result, social needs are
not given attention, and there exists in self-help books no
suggestion of basic structural transformations which could create

a world with no need for self-help formulas.

92

The response which self-help books give to needs appears
legitimate. People do feel depressed; they live with guilt and
anxiety--and often as a result of this combination, they become
fatigued. But people do not feel this way because they did not
decide to be happy. They feel defeated because they neither under-
stand nor control the social forces which make them feel that life
is collapsing around them. Alfred Katz and Eugene Bender, in
trying to explain the enticement of the self-help industry,
characterized people's attitudes this way:

. feelings of alienation and powerlessness, the

sense for many people that they are unable to control
the events that shape their lives; loss of choices;
feelings of being trapped by impersonal forces; the
decline of a sense of community and identity. These
problems are compounded for many by the loss of belief
(Katz and Bender, 1976, p. 4).
So people turn to self-help books in search of a new belief and
this is what they find there--a new belief system with the self
at the center. Something else which they find in these books,

however, is rather unexpected, and usually evades the awareness

of most people--false consciousness.

The Production of False Consciousness
False consciousness is an often misused, often misunderstood
concept. Herbert Marcuse, in his influential work One Dimensional
Mpg, juxtaposes true and false consciousness, and illuminates both

concepts:

93

All liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude,

and the emergence of this consciousness is always hampered

by the predominance of needs and satisfactions which, to

a great extent, have become the individual's own. The

process always replaces one system of preconditioning by

another: the optimal goal is the replacement of false

needs by true ones, the abandonment of repressive

satisfaction (Marcuse, 1964, p. 7).
False consciousness rests on a system of ideological hegemony.
Under the guise of self-help books, the hegemony discussed above
becomes internalized as norms of attitude and behavior. Told that
they shape their destinies, that happiness awaits them, and that
success can be theirs, individuals believe the promises offered
them in self-help books. Because they blame themselves for their
failures, people are more than grateful for a way out of what they
define as their inability to succeed.

By constructing a reality based on individual decision

and design, self-help books have created a book buying audience who
live under the auspices of false consciousness. "Repressive
satisfaction" is offered to people who partake in the "game of life."
And why not satisfy these superfluous needs; it is their satisfac-
tion which keeps people ignorant of a broader social world. Happi-
ness, pleasure, awareness, and success are the rewards which self-
help authors offer their faithful followers. In this way self-help
books maintain their entire focus on the individual, largely ignor-
ing the broader social picture, this absorption with the self, and
neglect of the society enables these books to divert people from

turning their attention to a critique of the society which causes

their private troubles.

94

The domination of individuals by society and through self-
help books is based on the homogenization of individuals, and the
suppression of true individuality in the pursuit of personal
expression. Christopher Lasch's concern, as stated in The Culture

of Narcissism, is precisely that which has already occurred. By

 

reifying personality, the very concept of personality has been
destroyed. Adorno and Horkheimer, in their essay "The Culture
Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," written thirty-five
years ago, recognized the same phenomena:

The most intimate reactions of human beings have been

so thoroughly reified that the idea of anything specific

to themselves now persists only as an utterly abstract

notion: personality scarcely signifies anything more

than shining white teeth and freedom from body odor and

emotions (Adorno and Horkeimer, 1944, p. 167).
In their ultimate search for self, individuals come up empty-
handed. The self they are pursuing has been destroyed by the very
social forces which compel them to be consumers of self-help books.

Conclusion: The_Negation of Personality and
Social Change Through Self-Absorption
Christopher Lasch believes himself to be at odds with

Edwin Schur's analysis of contemporary society. Schur, it will be
remembered, in his book The Awareness Trap, advanced a thesis which
stated that individuals are so absorbed with themselves that they
overlook opportunities for social change. Lasch did not take well
to Schur's ideas, and in his book The Culture of Narcissism insisted

that people are driven to a narcissistic preoccupation with the self

because of the nature of the society in which they live. I have

95

argued for both points, for it is clear, after the examination of
ten self-help books, that they do indeed encourage "self absorption
instead of social change." while at the same time obscuring those
social forces which give rise to single minded involvement with the
self.
Where these two themes meet is in their hegemonic role as
the gate-keepers of domination. Charged with the responsibility
to maintain the status quo, self-help books have built an industrial
empire out of pure appearance. Bertell Ollman, in commenting on
Marx's critique of bourgeois ideology, wrote:
. one might say that bourgeois ideology is composed

of half truths which result from an exclusive emphasis on

appearance. They become distortions of the whole truth

and particularly of the dynamic factors in the situation

whenever their limitations go unrecognized (Ollman, 1976,

pp. 228-229).
On the merit of half-truths, self-help authors have grown rich and
achieved fame. Their notoriety grows in proportion to the false
consciousness which they disseminate. Within the culture, there
are no signs of diminishing popularity for self-help books. In

fact, the opposite is true; the industry continues to expand, and

the books continue to be written.

Future Considerations
To explore the role of self-help books in contemporary
American society is to only begin to examine the importance of
popular cultural phenomena. A variety of questions, either barely
touched upon or entirely neglected in this analysis, need to be

investigated. Several of these issues would be: who reads

96

self-help books?--are the same people who read religious self-help
books during the 19505 reading psychological self-help books today?
What are the historical patterns which self-help books have
evidenced? Moving outside the literary realm of self-help, it would
be important to study self-help groups both in their historical and
contemporary manifestations.

Self-help literature has rarely been looked at from a
sociological perspective. That this topic is an important one
should be clear. What needs to be undertaken now is a systematic
socio-historical analysis of the place of self-help literature in

American society.

NOTES

97

NOTES

1The term self-help will be used throughout this discussion
to describe books which use either religious or psychological frame-
works to exhort individuals to change their lives. Defining both
problem--usually anxiety--and solution--primacy of God or self--these
exhortations focus on the manner in which personal transformations
should take place. This term is also employed in a broader sense
when describing the industry that has been built up around the self-
help concept.

2Lukacs devotes a large section of History and Class
Consciousness to a discussion of reification. It is in this chapter.
which initially concerns itself with the fetishism of commodities,
that Lukacs defines life as losing its qualitative nature and
becominglquantified. See Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness,
pp. 83- 0.

3Problematic is the term used by Louis Althusser which Ben
Brewster, in his glossary of Reading Capital, has written of: "A
word or concept cannot be considered in isolation; it only exists
in the theoretical or ideological framework in which it is used:
its problematic." See Brewster, in Althusser Reading Capital, p.
316.

 

 

4Peter Marin, Richard Sennett, and Christopher Lasch have
written on the development of narcissism in American society. See
Peter Marin, "The New Narcissism," in Har er's; October, 1975:
Richard Sennett, The Fall of Public Man: and, Christopher Lasch,
The Culture of Narcissism.

 

Jdrgen Habermas, in his article "Problems of legitimation
in late capitalism," has chronicaled the social consequences of state
regulation. See Habermas in Paul Connerton, ed., Critical Sociology,
pp. 363-387.

5Riesman's typology of tradition, inner- and other-directed
social characters is based on three phases of population growth and
decline, which give rise to them. Tradition directed individuals
are found in societies with "high population growth potential."
Soceity is able to insure the conformity of people in such a social
order through a variety of rituals which insure stability. Inner-
directed individuals are produced by societies undergoing "transi-
tional population growth." These individuals carry within themselves
an "inner gyroscope" which is capable of acclamating them to any

98

99

social change. Other-directed individuals are the products of
societies marked by "incipient population decline." People in this
type of society are more oriented toward their peers and take cues
for adaptation from those around them. See Riesman, Thegtpnely
Crowd, pp. 3-36.

6"Sociation" is used here after the fashion of Georg
Simmel. For Simmel, sociation constituted "the particular patterns
and forms in which men associate and interact with one another."
See Coser, Masters of Sociological Though , p. 198.

7In the literature dealing with social movements it has
been written that when personal misfortunes become defined as
political injustices, people will insist that these injustices be
redressed. For a discussion of this, see Turner, in R. Serge
Denisoff, ed., The Sociology of Dissent. pp. 21-36.

8The "self-absorption instead of social change" thesis has
also been argued by Peter Marin in "The new Narcissism" and Richard
Sennett in The Fall of Public Man. Marin's article is enlarged
upon by Lasch in his book and'therefore, is only mentioned here.
Sennett's book is mostly concerned with re-establishing the
separateness of the private and public spheres and, where he does
discuss narcissism, it is only in terms of recreating an impersonal
public sphere. His discussion of self involvement instead of social
change mirrors Schur's. For a pertinent critique of Schur, Marin,
and Sennett, see Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism, pp. 3-30.

 

 

9Schur's main similarity with the books he is seeking to
criticize is the manner in which he addresses his audience. He
writes in simplistic terms, unfettered by any attempt to see com-
plexities. His work appears, in a sense, as the perfect antithesis
of self-help books. It is an anti-self-help book which follows the
same format, speaks in the same language, and offers the same kinds
of solutions. See Schur, The Awareness Trap, particularly the
chapter entitled "Therapy more orless,"_pp. 154-190.

 

10Martin Jay, in The Dialectical Imagination, gives an
example of dialectical thinking when he discusses Herbert Marcuse's
ability to capture the dialectical nature of totalitarianism.
"This essay is also a model of dialectical thinking, treating
totalitarianism as both a reaction to and a continuation of certain
trends in liberalism" (Jay, 1973, pp. 121-122). This notion of see-
ing a cultural trend as being a reaction to and a continuation of
certain previous trends is that what Lasch is blinded to. He sees
only one side of the issue--the continuation.

100

1llhis time period was selected because it was my intention
to focus on modern society. By beginning with Dale Carnegie's 1937
publication it was possible to initiate my investigation with the
first self-help book of the modern period. By focusing on a forty
year span of time there was enough material present to see patterns
emerge.

12"The undersocialized conception of people" is in direct
contrast to Dennis Wrong's essay "The Oversocialized Conception of
Man in Modern Sociology" where Wrong argues that individuals have
been unfairly depicted as totally socialized beings. Wrong's article
can be found in Coser and Rosenberg's Sociological Theory, pp. 102-
112.

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101

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