What Are Self Help Books?
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Self Help books are books written for the purpose of instructing their readers on personal problems.
Self Help books normally contain a significant element of 'self-improvement' bookstores, and their online equivalents, use both terms to classify these types of books in their stores. True Self-help books normally relate to psychology, and aspects of the mind and human behavior, which can be controlled with conscious effort. Self-help books typically aim to increase the self-awareness of the reader to improve their performance in some type of endeavor.
Self help books are available across a wide spectrum from emotional intelligence, anger management, abuse and bullying, multiculturalism and diversity, dating skills, marketing, methods, career success, relationship success, good parenting, addiction, teaching and very many more. It would be impossible for us to describe all of them here as there are thousands of self-help books on the market.
Law publishers and libraries usually also have so called Self-Help legal books. Many of these digress from our earlier description as these do not necessarily meet our criteria for a true Self Help book, as they may not always contain a psychological element, and may simply be written so that the readers can empower themselves to act in some manner in connection with a legal case in which they are involved. In other words these may be more like a Do-It-Yourself book, than the sort of book we normally consider to fall within the Self Help category.
Do also be aware that some Self-help legal books are written by people who aren't lawyers. In this case the buyer must check for himself/herself that the advice given is legally correct and truly useful.
A Self Help book is almost undoubtedly useful to read, if you for example, have a partner who is abusive toward you, is an alcoholic and mistreats you, or if you suffer from a life-altering illness, or even have lost a very close friend or relative due to bereavement. In these cases Self Help books help you cope with what is going on.
There are some situations and problems, like these, that really aren't something we just know intuitively how to deal with. We all need reassurance and support through hard times and Self-Help books can help fill that need..
There are many Self Help books which you can purchase from Amazon, however, you may be able to see a copy for nothing at the many law libraries and public libraries in the US. These may also be able to loan you self-help books at no cost to you, if you call in and see the library staff.
Self Help books are also available for recovery from childhood sexual abuse. In this case these books can help facilitate the empowerment process, which allows the abuse sufferer to adjust themselves mentally. Another Self Help books area which is very topical given the increasing number of countries in which smoking has been banned in all public places is "quitting smoking on your own or with a technique".
The Self Help movement is non-confrontational with society, and these books should be freely available worldwide.
Reading Self-Help books seems to rarely do any damage. Any therapy, or self-help method does nevertheless, hold the potential to do harm. In the past two decades, the self-help movement has mushroomed without significant publicity arising of any damaging implications resulting form these techniques.
Research supporting self-help approaches is in fact accumulating. Self-Help books can be said, with some justification, to play an important therapeutic role in the lives of people dealing with relationship problems, but the number of controlled studies conducted on this, are reportedly very low. Some have claimed that fewer than 5% of the tens of thousands of self-help books on the market have been subjected to randomized clinical trials..
Critics of Self-Help books assert that they are written for people looking for simple solutions to what are in fact difficult and complex problems. However, its critics have had little, if any, effect in reducing the growth in this material, and it has now been decades since the emergence of the Self-Help book genre.
Self-Help is in fact one of publishing's hottest categories. A range of Self-Help websites and leaflets are increasingly flourishing via the internet. Self-help books commonly claim a solution to depression, but some reportedly may fail to explain that there are two types of depression, these being normal (psychological) and clinical (biological). So there may be a case for some form of regulation, and peer review, which is absent at present.
All of these books encourage you not just to read the book, but to find the courage to talk to others, get counseling, or join a self help group. Every self-helper should try to be his/her own researcher, read widely, and not just read without judging what he reads against his/her life experience.
Self-help is successful because it doesn't label people as problems but builds on the strengths they do possess. Self-help is a relatively new, still-to-be-proven approach, involving a few well tested methods, but many other methods are unproven. There are so many books out there that you really need to be discerning.
The reality is that many of us need the courage to change which these books provide. So carry on Self Helping if you are already, and if you would like to start, here are some resources we recommend, to help you begin your research.
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