Why I Wrote A Self-Help Book That Critiques Self-Help Books
I had written a book previously but decided not to put it on sale. The book was called ‘Discussions on Consciousness and the Self’. As a miniature gesture against the pervasiveness of capitalism I decided to get a limited number of copies printed and rather than selling them to distribute them free of charge to family, friends and anybody who showed an interest. I wrote it shortly after I graduated from a B. Sc. Psychology course and populated it with what could be described as my ‘real’ thoughts on various psychology-related topics as opposed to what I wrote in examination halls for the purpose of passing university exams.
In the lead up to the covid years I toyed with the idea of writing a second book, this time as a commercial venture. The impetus for this project stemmed from time spent browsing in bookshops over several years where I dipped in and out of various self-help books. The ‘dips’ were pretty speedy to be honest as in most cases I had difficulty with the content. Maybe this was because of my academic training but in any event what I read seemed so underwhelming and, in many cases, downright simple-minded. The human condition is way more complicated I thought.
Rightly or wrongly self-help is a maligned genre. Forms of self-help literature have been around for millennia but the genre itself appears to have originated in 1859 when Scotsman Samuel Smiles published a book called ‘Self-Help’ which was designed to empower the working classes. The Victorian era of the time was experiencing significant social, cultural and economic changes and in his book Smiles argued that in many cases poverty was due to vices such as laziness and that prosperity was attainable by anybody. The book became a best seller.
One of the criticisms of Smiles’ book was that it over-emphasised individual responsibility and minimised the duty of the state, particularly with regard to poverty; that it placed the burden of responsibility on the individual without taking into account the individual’s circumstances, which at the time would frequently have included impoverishment and poor educational standards.
In modern times self-help books typically continue to ignore or downplay personal circumstances. They are often characterised by generic statements, potentially harmful advice, false hope, and by ill-informed celebrities writing books which state the obvious. For example, “walking is one of the ways we move through the world” was a piece of wisdom offered by one self-help author. Despite the banality of a lot of self-help literature it is important to note that self-help hits the target for some readers and, as such, if it ain’t broke for them why fix it.
For others though it doesn’t work. It is perceived as overly simplistic, not necessarily because of elitism or condescension or snobbery on the part of the reader but because, basically, as far as those readers are concerned, the self-help content is overly simplistic and, in some cases, irritatingly offensive. Because of this I decided to try to fill a void, as I saw it.
The concept of conscious living is one that has interested me for some time, especially since I became a cognitive behavioural psychotherapist many moons ago. Conscious living is about waking up. Properly. It is about being cognisant of the real reasons why you think what you think and do what you do. Conscious living is about being aware of what you attend to with your senses and of the impact that your sensory inputs have on your wellbeing. Conscious living is about choice. To get to the point where constructive choices can be made, awareness is required.
With this in mind I made a decision to write a self-help book on the concept of conscious living using the title ‘The Aware Self: A Compendium Of Conscious Living.’ In this particular self-help book, I tried – note tried – to avoid the dumbed down approach to life and living that I have witnessed in so many other books in the self-help genre by providing what I reluctantly refer to as ‘a self-help book for the thinking person’ which doubles as a critique of the self-help genre of which it is a part. To do so I selected a number of ‘bread and butter’ self-help themes and explored them with reference to personal indulgences such as philosophy, psychotherapy, science, poetry, psychology, sport, literature, song, and spirituality.
As to whether I achieved my objective of a self-help book for the thinking person, I guess that is a matter for the individual reader. However, irrespective of, or perhaps in addition to, reader verdicts it is important to note that in an era of existential angst due to global military instability, health pandemics, artificial intelligence, climate change and the future of our planet that all of these, and more, are interconnected and that an awareness of, and a respect for, this interconnectivity is a major tenet of conscious living.
Individual wellbeing is essential to collective wellbeing, to the wellbeing of the family, the community, the school, the college, the workplace . . . and the planet. Therefore, helping yourself to think and live consciously is potentially one of the best gifts that you could give to yourself, your family, your community and so on up to and including your planet.
My book is designed as a foundational resource in this regard.
The Aware Self: A Compendium Of Conscious Living is available at select retail outlets and via this website.
