Who’s Afraid of Self-Help?

A historian defends the squishy science

Photo: SolStock/Getty Images

Self-help has developed a bit of a dowdy reputation. I was recently corresponding with a successful self-help writer who seemed embarrassed by the term.

“I don’t see myself as a self-help writer,” he explained. “I think that most self-help is a sham.” The same writer later sent me a mass-mailing for a “Magic Income Trick.”