Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD and author of Making Habits, Breaking Habits, states that “the dark side of hope is that claims about potential improvement can, and are, grossly exaggerated in order to prise open our wallets.”
Hope, those feelings of expectation and desire for good things to happen, has a dark side? Fortunately, it’s not all dark news for those hopefuls seeking to improve themselves.
Self-manuals seem to be effective in changing the way individuals think about themselves because, in part, it is due to that sugar-coated pill called a placebo influence. People believe the practises or steps outlined in the books changed the lives of others whose stories are retold within the pages.
If it worked for them, chances are it will work for me.
However, there’s always a killjoy in the crowd to point out the obvious. Comedian, author and social critic, George Carlin observed, “There is no such thing as self-help: anyone looking for help from someone else does not technically get “self” help; and one who accomplishes something without help, did not need help to begin with.”
If you have scrolled through several self-help books as I have, it becomes apparent that the authors follow a certain method of imparting their wisdom. Self-help writers are often accused of being “simplistic and repetitious, they are also banal and unoriginal, merely offering their readers platitudes on behalf of the best parts of folk wisdom.”
But is this the end of the story?
At 90 years of age, Priscilla Sitienei could not write her name, much less read a self-help book. After a lifetime of poor education, she tagged along with six of her great-grandchildren to the local school. But it wasn’t to carry their book and water bottles. What she Priscilla did was astounding.
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