Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life

By Micki McGee

Book Overview

Why doesn't self-help help? Millions of people turn to self-improvement when they find that their lives aren't working out quite as they had imagined. The market for self-improvement products--books, audiotapes, life-makeover seminars and regimens of all kinds--is exploding, and there seems to be no end in sight for this trend. In Self-Help, Inc., cultural critic Micki McGee asks what our seemingly insatiable demand for self-help can tell us about ourselves at the outset of this new century. This lucid and fascinating book reveals how makeover culture traps Americans in endless cycles of self-invention and overwork, and offers suggestions for how we can address the alienating conditions of modern work and family life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195171241
• ISBN13: 9780195171242
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

The Slave Behind the Curtain of the "Self-Made Man"

Love this book! It addresses the mysterious question of who does all the grunt work in the lives of so-called "self-made men (people)?" McGee says it is the "belabored self" who is busy raising kids, doing laundry, and cleaning bathrooms. With a sociologist's eye for larger social dynamics, McGee deconstructs the self-help industry as a tool of oppression to maintain the status quo (and does this well). Lose your job? Don't complain or be a "victim" but "buck-up" and talk nonsense about how it is the greatest thing that ever happened to you! Lose your marriage? Don't wallow in self-pity but think positive! Feel hopeless? Don't worry the "universe" has a plan for you if you can just focus on abundance. This is a splendid critique of one of the most vapid American phenomena- the idea that you "invent" yourself. People like Tom Peters should be clubbed unconscious with this book.

Self-Help, Inc.

Wow, this book rocked my world and greatly inflenced my own work as an dance/theater/art maker. McGee wizely points to the underlying currents of personal darkness that result not from our relationships, our schools, our government, but rather from our hyper-competitive economy. This book made me question the fundamental paradigm that runs my own life/how I cope with life and left me in a challenged yet honest and hopeful place.

Lose yourself in self-help

A warning to those who are at risk of losing themselves in self-help.... which in balance is a complement to living well ... but in excess is just as bad as any other addiction. Self-help is a form of refuge for those who are seeking family, have an orphan complex, or who don't know the difference between living and escapism in psuedo-life. There are moments when one needs to be intensive in their healing but eventually one must come back to the world and be in life. It is no different than people who escape by hobbies, religion, work, etc. Help yourself with a dose of self-help but don't binge on it either. A very telling account of the state of affairs in human culture - the therapist replaces the priest and self-help movements take over the church. Lost souls still congregate. Self-help also has its dark side: a culture of balme, unlimited thinking promoted to embark in action without concern for the consequence on others, a magical thinking that allows one to coast, and of course ... the relentless use of double speak in self-help circles. Many self-help circles cross the line whereby they give permission to go after what one desires even if it may mean some unhappy consequences for innocent people. Do not throw out your sense of common sense - ever! And these self-help mastros are very convincing. A piece of advice: follow the money... that's the guidance that help break the scandal of Watergate. FOLLOW THE MONEY.... and choose a self-help course because you really want to do it and it is an adjunct to your life, not a replacement. See lesson from the est movement ... and never allow your own independant thoughts to be replaced by another with an agenda, often monetary.

Full of insight into the making of the self-help culture

This book isn't the one you turn to when you want an extreme makeover. It's the book you turn to when you want to figure out why you want an extreme makeover to begin with. Self-Help, Inc. sets out to examine how and why the current self-help culture was created and what its impact is on individuals and society -- and it boldly hits its target dead center. Dense with facts, history and insight, Self-Help, Inc. examines the movement of self improvement. How did the idea of making oneself better not only start, but become en vogue? What is its impact on the individual, society and the workplace? How does the idea and history of self-improvement differ between men and women (which, as a woman, I found incredibly fascinating)? Where has self-help culture come and where is it going? And what is the long-term advantages and disadvantages of living in a society that puts such a high value on a nearly impossible to achieve "extreme makeover"? Micki McGee, Ph.D., uses her sociology expertise and many years as an NYU professor to answer these questions and more. And she does so with eloquence and intelligence, making this a truly fascinating and illuminating read.

I'm buying copies for all my friends who are hooked on self-help

I've read a lot of self-help books and sometimes ideas in them work, and sometimes they don't. What I loved about this book is that it gave me the history of these sorts of books. I had no idea that the ideas in self-help books went so far back in time. Fun to read, though not a speed-read . . . Lots of great quotes, images, and ideas. I loved this book. I'm buying copies for all my friends who are hooked on self-help.