Editing Self-help (section)

==Criticism==
Scholars have targeted many self-help claims as misleading and incorrect.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> In 2005, [[Steve Salerno]] portrayed the American self-help movement—he uses the acronym ''SHAM: the Self-Help and Actualization Movement''—not only as ineffective in achieving its goals but also as socially harmful.<ref name="Salerno 2005"/> "Salerno says that 80 percent of self-help and motivational customers are repeat customers and they keep coming back whether the program worked for them or not."<ref name=":0">{{cite book|first=Vicki|last=Kunkel|title=Instant Appeal|year=2009|page=94}}</ref> Another critic pointed out that with [[self-help books]] "supply increases the demand… The more people read them, the more they think they need them… more like an addiction than an alliance."<ref name=":1">{{cite book|first=R. J.|last=McAllister|title=Emotion: Mystery or Madness?|year=2007|pages=156–57}}</ref>

Self-help writers have been described as working "in the area of the ideological, the imagined, the narrativized… although a veneer of scientism permeates the[ir] work, there is also an underlying armature of moralizing."{{r|Davis|page=173}}

[[Christopher Buckley (novelist)|Christopher Buckley]] in his book ''[[God Is My Broker]]'' asserts: "The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one".<ref name=balance>{{cite book|last= Buckley|first=Christopher|title= God Is My Broker, A Monk-Tycoon Reveals the 7½ Laws of Spiritual and Financial Growth |year=1998|publisher=Random House|isbn= 978-0-06-097761-0|page=185|url=https://archive.org/details/godismybrokermo000tybr|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Gerald Rosen raised concerns that psychologists were promoting untested self-help books with exaggerated claims rather than conducting studies that could advance the effectiveness of these programs to help the public.<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite journal|last=Rosen|first=Gerald M.|year=1976|title=The development and use of nonprescription behavior therapies|journal=American Psychologist|volume=31|issue=2 |pages=139–41|doi=10.1037/0003-066X.31.2.139 |pmid=1267246 }}
|2={{cite journal|last=Rosen|first=Gerald M.|year=1987|title=Self-help treatment books and the commercialization of psychotherapy|journal=American Psychologist|volume=42|issue=1 |pages=46–51|doi=10.1037/0003-066X.42.1.46 |pmid=3565914 }}
}}</ref> Rosen noted the potential benefits of self-help but cautioned that good intentions were not sufficient to assure the efficacy and safety of self-administered instructional programs. Rosen and colleagues observed that many psychologists promote untested self-help programs rather than contributing to the meaningful advancement of self-help.<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite book|last1=Rosen|first1=Gerald M.|last2=Glasgow|first2=R.E.|last3=Moore|first3=T.|last4=Barrera|first4=M.|year=2015|chapter=Self-Help Therapy: Recent developments in the science and business of giving psychology away|editor-first1=S.O.|editor-last1=Lilienfeld|editor-first2=S.J.|editor-last2=Lynn|editor-first3=J.M.|editor-last3=Lohr|title=Science & Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology|edition=2nd|location=New York|publisher=Guilford Press}}
|2={{cite journal|last1=Rosen|first1=Gerald M.|last2=Lilienfeld|first2=S.O.|year=2016|title=On the failure of psychology to advance self-help: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a case example|journal=Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy|volume=46|issue=2 |pages=71–77|doi=10.1007/s10879-015-9319-y |s2cid=34944982 }}
}}</ref>

From a sociological perspective, self-help is often criticized for inculcating a model of a self-reliant and precarious worker-citizen who does not rely on state support and contributes to a productive labor-force.<ref>Rose, Nikolas (1998). ''Inventing our Selves: Psychology, power, and personhood''. Cambridge University Press.</ref> Self-help hence promotes and globalizes a capitalist version of individualism and personal development, producing new anxieties while also enabling people to imagine and simulate (through reading, workshops, training) their desired ideals of personhood.<ref>Hizi, Gil (2021). "[https://doi.org/10.1111/etho.12305 Becoming Role Models: Pedagogies of Soft Skills and Affordances of Person-Making in Contemporary China]", ''Ethos'' 49(2): 135-151.</ref>