Self-Help: What Went Wrong?

Self-Help: What if the industry that promises to make you "better" is actually making everything worse?

The self-help industry is full of gurus promising to make you the best version of yourself. But what if there's something more sinister going on amidst all this aspirational self-improvement? Let's find out in this Wisecrack Edition on Self Help: What Went Wrong?

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Written by Amanda Scherker
Hosted by Michael Burns
Directed by Elizabeth Yarwood
Motion Graphics by Riley A
Illustrations by J.R Fleming
Editing & Additional Animation by Brian M Kim
Video Title Card by Amanda Murphy
Produced by Evan Yee

Attribution Links:
Image of Zeno of Citium - By Paolo Monti - Available in the BEIC digital library and uploaded in partnership with BEIC Foundation.The image comes from the Fondo Paolo Monti, owned by BEIC and located in the Civico Archivio Fotografico of Milan., CC BY-SA 4.0

#selfhelp #goop #wisecrack

© 2021 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc

[WisecrackEDU]

Think you can do better than putting tape on your dog's paws? What's your favorite life hack?

[lukashillebrand]

"If you are looking for Slef-Help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That's not Self-Help, that's help! There is no such thing as Self-Help. If you did it yourself, you didn't need help. You did it yourself! Try to pay attention to the language we all agreed on." - George Carlin

[theequasian]

My biggest self help was too stop listening to celebrities.

[crimsonhalo]

Alternate title:

*"How we went from collaborative aid, to bootstrap conservatism, to multiple cults of personality: a story in three acts."*

[tily]

How to get rich: sell a bunch of books and seminars telling people they aren't rich because they don't try hard enough

[martinp]

Significant problem with these gurus' advice: too much focus on 'self' and not on 'help'

[Hotshotk]

Despite the somewhat cynical name, How To Win Friends and Influence People is actually a pretty wholesome book whose advice mostly boils down to "pay attention and give a shit about others", and hopefully benefit from reciprocity.

[brendonbrackin]

Thank you for this. As a person who was balls deep in the self help world for years and then got out feeling like I got out of a cult, I really appreciate this. It gives me more perspective.

[NoMoreCrumbs]

Adam Curtis has said that one of the problems with the way we see ourselves is that we basically see ourselves as machines. Any other feeling than happiness is seen as a malfunction that must be done away with immediately. We are trying to force ourselves to feel okay with systems that exploit and harm us instead of changing those systems

[kolbyjackcorgi]

Teaching people that negative circumstances in life are a reflection of failure and completely avoidable, and that they could have a perfect life was the problem. Negative things WILL happen to everyone. They are NOT always avoidable. They are NOT always the person's fault. Perfection is an illusion. Everyone can't live like kings and queens. Such thinking is toxic.

[TheLastCodebender]

After reading a few self-help books, you realize that they are all mostly the same

[nagimori]

I would definitely want to read How to Lose Friends and Influence Nobody by Michael Burns

[ZEKESPILLEDINKMUSIC]

Toxic Positivity. THAT is what happened!

[deannab]

“I could point you in the direction of the ‘self help’ books but that would defeat the purpose”

Librarian

[akuma]

Sad how everything that started about empowering the working class turns into another hyper capitalist monster.

[drjay]

I think self-help books are fulfilling roles that parents / people / communities fulfilled in the past.

We live in a rather “individualized, ” and narcissistic society these days, where we are told that society has provided us with all the tools we need to survive, and we have to flaunt things we own to show our worth (as pointed out in your video).

There is a lack of community and belongingness nowadays. In the past you’d have your parents, or people in you community to look up, and give you advice. Nowadays everyone is struggling with the same thing you are, so you have to turn to self-help books and videos to fix your life.

In summary, the self-help phenomena is fulfilling a niche that was fulfilled in the past by community.

[emberchord]

I would love to see a digest of you people about these "productitvity", "hustle porn", "work hard play hard" movements. They hit a very similar tone.

[bluehornet]

Working in a bookstore for years Ive seen the kind of addiction to self-improvement books the industry fosters. Individuals will drop hundreds a year literally looking like and hoping the next book will change their lives. I have no clue if it work for any of the habitual customers but considering they never stopped buying more s-h books, not likely. Its crazy the amount of writers with no backgrounds in psychology just hit it big with a catchy phrase.

[TheKing-velz]

I used to think self help was perfect and that everything I was struggling with was all entirely my fault. And to a some degree I think i was right. I have been working to improve myself over the last few years and I feel better for it in at least some small ways. However it is unhealthy to shift the blame for these things entirely on yourself as I have learned recently. Improving yourself is an admirable and very worthwhile goal that everyone should pursue but there are serious problems with institutions these days and I'd even argue serious problems with the way capitalism functions making it harder than it needs to be for people to get ahead. If you are struggling you can and should work on self improvement, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't also criticize and fight against oppressive systems that make things harder than they should be.

[BigMamaDaveX]

😎 "If you didn't succeed, you didn't try hard enough!" = "If you weren't healed, your faith wasn't strong enough!" 😏😉