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Tags

Self Help

Politics

The Gospel According to Marianne Williamson

Do spirituality and self-help have a political constituency?

Taffy Brodesser-Akner New York Times Magazine Sep 2019 25min Permalink

Health

How the Self-Esteem Craze Took Over America

“An idea too good not to believe.”

Jesse Singal New York May 2017 25min Permalink

Best Article History

All-American Huckster

The untold story of Napoleon Hill, who practically invented the self-help scam through his 1937 book Think and Grow Rich.

Matt Novak Gizmodo Dec 2016 1h20min Permalink

Business Crime

'That's Not All!' Kevin Trudeau, The World’s Greatest Salesman, Makes One Last Pitch

A profile of the best-selling author, self-help guru and convicted felon.

Aaron Gell Business Insider Jan 2015 50min Permalink

Business

Is Giving the Secret to Getting Ahead?

A profile of organizational psychologist Adam Grant, who argues that the key to success comes from helping others.

Susan Dominus New York Times Magazine Mar 2013 Permalink

History

EST, Werner Erhard, And the Corporatization of Self-Help

How Human Potential Movement workshops permeated our lives and our businesses.

Suzanne Snider The Believer May 2003 25min Permalink

On the Limits of Self-Improvement

There’s an entire micro-economy based on the pursuit of betterment. The author—58, full-figured, and ferocious in his consumption of cigarettes and scotch—agreed to test its limits.

  1. Part 1

  2. Part 2

  3. Part 3

Christopher Hitchens Vanity Fair Dec 2007 30min Permalink

Better, Faster, Stronger

A profile of Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Body and The 4-Hour Workweek.

Rebecca Mead New Yorker Sep 2011 20min Permalink

Arts

Inside David Foster Wallace’s Private Self-Help Library

Text from the books and Foster Wallace’s corresponding annotations:

Along with all the Wittgenstein, Husserl and Borges, he read John Bradshaw, Willard Beecher, Neil Fiore, Andrew Weil, M. Scott Peck and Alice Miller. Carefully.

Maria Bustillos The Awl Apr 2011 40min Permalink

Arts Science Movies & TV

Hollywood Shadows: A Cure for Blocked Screenwriters

Barry Michels is Hollywood’s most successful therapist cum motivation coach with an approach that combines Jungian psychology, encouraging patients to embrace their dark side, and “three-by-five index cards inscribed with Delphic pronouncements like THE HIERARCHY WILL NEVER BE CLEAR.”

Dana Goodyear New Yorker Mar 2011 20min Permalink