It’s easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we also need to take self-help more seriously. Worth $11bn (£8bn) worldwide, self-help is a major global industry. it reflects and generates many of our prevailing ideas about ourselves and about the cultures in which we live. The self-help industry not only seeks to shape the way we think, feel, and behave, it also provides many of the core metaphors we rely on to talk about our inner lives. Many of those metaphors, including the mind as a computer that might require reprogramming, are useless at best.
Critics of self-help believe its current popularity is part of a pervasive neoliberal imperative to maximize efficiency. they see it as a sinister plot to shift all responsibility for our well-being onto ourselves. they feel that self-help sees all our problems as personal and our failures as due to a lack of willpower and resilience, when in fact they are caused by the politics of capitalism. But while this may be true of self-help, the idea of self-improvement has a long and rich history, dating back to ancient wisdom traditions. the desire to excel is linked to our need for self-knowledge, mastery and transformation. it is a timeless desire and an essential part of what makes us human.
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and some self-improvement literature can really help us become better people. I mean better not in a competitive sense but in an ethical sense: the improved self is better able to direct attention outward, towards projects, other people, and the communities of which we are a part.
1. marcus aurelius meditationsthe roman emperor and stoic philosopher marcus aurelius (121-180 ad) believed that all suffering is in our minds. suffering is not caused by external events but by our reactions to those events, by misjudgments and unrealistic expectations. Since most external events are out of our control, Aurelio argues in his meditations that there is no point in worrying about them. our evaluations of these events, by contrast, are entirely within our control. it follows that all our mental energies must be directed inward, with a view to controlling our minds. The key to a happy life, then, is to adjust our expectations, because “only a madman looks for figs in winter.”
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2. feeling good: the new mood therapy by david d burns (1980)the science behind burns’ book may no longer be cutting edge, but its core message remains powerfully relevant. A more realistic version of Stoicism, it is based on the premises of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). feeling good illustrates how our thoughts shape our feelings and contains some great techniques for training our minds to question negative thoughts about ourselves and others.
3. the happiness trap by russ harris (2007)we are not, of course, purely rational creatures. sometimes our attempts to control our thoughts can backfire. Here, Australian psychologist Harris explains the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). he invites us not to try to control our negative thoughts or uncomfortable feelings, but simply to disconnect from them, accept them, and then let them go. that way we have more energy to commit to actions based on values.
4. lao tao te ching tzu spiritual self-cultivation through the art of letting go is the central theme of the tao te ching (the classic study of “the path and the virtue”, usually dated to the sixth or fourth century BC). In Daoism, letting go focuses on the idea of offering no resistance to the natural order of things. promotes a sophisticated way of submitting our will to cosmic forces, accepting what is and loosening our attachments to our desires and expectations of specific results. the tao suggests that we can improve ourselves by returning to a simpler, more authentic and intuitive way of life. a key concept is wu wei – “no action” or “effortless action”. wu wei can perhaps best be described as a spiritual state marked by acceptance of what is and the absence of selfish desires.
5. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle (1998)We are not our thoughts, Tolle argues in this bestselling book. Most of our thoughts, Tolle writes, revolve around the past or the future. our past provides us with an identity, while the future holds “the promise of salvation.” both are illusions, because the present moment is all we really have. therefore, we must learn to be present as “observers” of our minds, witnessing our thought patterns rather than identifying with them. that way, we can relearn to truly live in the now.
6. altruism: the science and psychology of kindness by matthieu ricard(2015)in many theologies and wisdom traditions, altruism is moral and spiritual value higher. more recently, psychologists have shown that altruistic acts not only benefit the recipient, but also make those who perform them happier. Furthermore, practicing altruism, argues the French Buddhist monk Ricard, is the key not only to our personal happiness but also to solving our most pressing social, economic, and environmental problems. altruism allows us to “harmoniously connect the challenges of the economy in the short term, the quality of life in the medium term, and our future environment in the long term.”
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7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)The American transcendentalist philosopher Thoreau retired to a cabin in the woods near Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, where he sought to live simply and ” deliberately.” It was there that he developed the intriguing notion of “cost of living,” the perfect antidote to the unthinking materialism and toxic Protestant work ethic that so many of us are still enslaved to. It seems normal to most of us. trading our time in life for goods, believing that productivity and success are age-old signs of grace Thoreau saw paid work as a necessary evil to which we should spend as little time as possible his goal was not to work a single minute more than what he needed to cover his most basic living expenses and spend whatever time he had left doing what he truly loved.
8. grit by angela duckworth (2017)according to psychologist angela duckworth, grit always beats talent. That’s music to the ears of anyone inclined to identify with Aesop’s industrious tortoise rather than the effortlessly swift hare. “Our potential is one thing. what we do with it is quite another,” she writes. here determination is a drive to improve both our skills and our performance through constant effort. Courageous people are always eager to learn and are driven by enduring passion. they learn from their mistakes, have direction, and live more consistent lives.
9. Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (1308-21)This 14th-century poem recounts the middle-aged and exhausted Dante’s gradual overcoming of spiritual weariness. Guided by his mentor Virgil, he journeys from hell to paradise, where he is finally reunited with his beloved Beatrice. The epic can be read as a Christian cautionary tale or an extended revenge fantasy in which many of Dante’s personal enemies get their gruesome comeuppance. but we can also read it as an archetypal story of spiritual growth and self-improvement. The doubtful Dante is systematically re-educated by his multiple encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. the denizens of hell show him how not to live his life and the costs of his poor choices. In the end, purged of his own weaknesses, Dante reaches a higher spiritual plane and glimpses the divine.
10. The Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100-1200 BC)Almost all forms of self-improvement resemble a quest narrative or heroic journey. such narratives show the hero or heroine venturing into the unknown: a dark forest, an underground kingdom, or the belly of a beast. there they encounter obstacles and many times they have to fight an enemy or a temptation. having overcome these challenges, they return from their adventures transformed and ready to share what they have learned to help others. The oldest surviving narrative of this kind relates how Gilgamesh, the once selfish Mesopotamian king, returns from the desert with the plant of eternal life. instead of eating it himself, he shares the blessing of it with his people.
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anna katharina schaffner is professor of cultural history at the university of kent. Her book The Art of Self-Improvement: Ten Eternal Truths is published by Yale University Press.
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